Archaeology Notes

Event ID 710776

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/710776

NT08SW 4 0137 8151.

(Name: NT 0126 8150) Legionary Tablet found here

16th April 1868 (NAT)

OS 6"map, Linlithgowshire, 2nd ed., (1913)

(NT 0137 8151) Roman Distance Slab found 1868 (NAT)

OS 25"map, (1972)

A Roman 'distance slab' broken in three places was found in April 1868 in front of the rocky promontory on which Bridgeness Tower stands. Mr Cadell, who was present when the find was made, records that it was discovered lying face down, under a few inches of soil, at a point 19ft above the level of the ordinary spring tides. It had evidently been carefully laid there, over a hollow in the soil, and covered over. He donated the slab to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS Accession no: FV 27) on condition that a plaque recording the discovery by erected near the find-spot.

The slab is 9ft 2ins long by 2ft 11ins high and commemorates the completion of some four miles of the Antonine Wall by the 2nd Legion. Close to the find-spot, an old dry-stone dyke of squared freestone such as the Romans used in constructing their permanent camps was found, extending for a few feet like a rough retaining wall round the face of the promontory, about 5 or 6ft below the flat ground under the table (H M Cadwell 1913).

H M Cadwell 1871; 1913; G Macdonald 1925; RCAHMS 1929; R W Feachem 1967.

A commemorative plaque at NT 0137 8151 in the roadside wall states that the slab was discovered "near this spot on 29th April 1868" otherwise the precise site was not confirmed.

Visited by OS (D S) 25 January 1957.

The design of this slab is fully described and discussed by Phillips.

E J Phillips 1975.