Archaeology Notes

Event ID 714145

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/714145

NT37SW 33 centred on NT 34800 71200

See also NT37SW 68 and NT37SW 77 -8, 182-6 and 1000-2, and NT37SE 49 and NT37SE 75.

The most prominent of the linear cropmarks previously reported (St Joseph 1965) has been excavated and found to be a large V-shaped ditch, 6' deep, and characteristically Roman type. Cropmarks establish two sectors of its course, 975ft and 625ft in length, inclined at an obtuse angle, probably defining the NW and W sides of a larege camp, lying on carefully chosen ground protected on these sides by a scarp sloping down to the River Esk, and to the E by the extensive Howe Mire, now converted to arable land. Repeated search has failed to reveal a corresponding ditch to E and SE. However the E-W dimension is unlikely to be less than 1550ft, and there is space for a camp of the largest size. The position is six miles from Pathhead, and it may be noted that this is the last space S of the fort in Inveresk village on which it is possible to lay out, on level ground, a camp of 120 acres or more.

J K St Joseph 1969

An area of featureless pasture land containing no surface indications of these markings.

OS Field Report April 1975

Parts of the W and S sides of the ditch of a large Roman temporary ca mp of perhaps 50 acres (20ha) were uncovered. Sections showed a sharp V-shaped profile (2m to 3m wide; 1m deep), but provided no dating evidence.

W S Hanson 1985

The possibility that the large camp at Inveresk might be a member of the 65 ha (165 acre) group, also presumed to be of Severan date, has not been confirmed. Its S side, which appears as a linear cropmark running for 274m parallel to the SE side of the lane from the main road A6124, to Cowpits, was observed during reconnaissance in 1981 and earlier years. The feature is crossed by a branch railway and extends beneath an old school house and cottages. At one point there is a detached length of ditch like a traverse set forward to the SE, presumably marking an entrance; the main cropmark, though not interrupted, appreciably narrows opposite the traverse. Two exploratory trenches revealed, where the cropmark was of full-width, a V-shaped ditch 2.7m wide and 1.8m deep from the present surface; where the cropmark narrowed there was a smaller ditch 1.8m wide and only 1.2m deep.

G S Maxwell and D R Wilson 1987.

NT 3210 7303 to NT 3579 7184 Archaeological works along the line of a sewer pipeline revealed significant archaeological remains. The pipeline ran for 5km between Wallyford Waste Water Treatment Works and the eastern interceptor sewer near Portobello.

The investigation of an extensive area of cropmarks at Inveresk, specifically those to the S of the Edinburgh to Dunbar railway line, exposed three main groups of features: linear features that formed enclosures (NMRS NT37SE 50) and field systems lying on a pronounced gravel ridge; two Roman temporary marching camps (NMRS NT37SW 33 and NT37SW 186 ); and features whose function and origin is not known (NMRS NT37SW 68 and NT37SW 182 ).

The main group of cropmark features (NMRS NT37SE 50), is assumed to represent the southern extent of a field system associated with Inveresk Roman fort to the N and comprises four feature groups: a series of ditches bounding large areas to the NE; a series of smaller enclosures; a small rectilinear enclosure to the far SW; and a linear trackway running roughly NE-SW through the series of smaller enclosures

Sponsor: M J Gleeson Group plc.

Murray Cook 2001