Archaeology Notes

Event ID 715118

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/715118

NT45SE 2 475 546.

(Name: NT 4735 5482) ROMAN CAMP (R) (site of)

OS 6" map (1970)

This Roman temporary camp was surveyed by Roy and considered by him to have originally measured some 600 by 420 yds and to have accommodated at least 10,500 men. By 1900, only some 170 yds of the N side of the camp could be traced and the W side was hardly traceable, though a wall had recently been built along its top. The entrance however, was still traceable and 23ft in width; its associated tutulus had disappeared.

A section was cut into the N side of the camp 'where the ditch is deepest and the wall-mound highest' in 1897. This revealed nothing apart from the normal soil, clearly indicating the temporary nature of the camp. The camp was surveyed by Craw when the rampart was traceable from A to B on his plan, though it was much obliterated at its N apex by the old road. He excavated the W gateway in 1921, cutting the U-shaped section of the tutulus ditch, which was over 3ft deep, 64ft from the W rampart (overlaid by the modern field dyke. The tutulus was 69ft long. In 1922, he excavated at 'A' and found a trench 12ft wide and 2ft 4ins deep, but was uncertain whether it was part of the camp or of the Roman road (RR 8g).

Between 1953 and 1960, Dr St Joseph has re-discovered the position of all the ramparts of this camp from the air, identifying another gate, with a tutulus, in the NE side. Excavation in 1956 showed the ditch to be rock-cut, V-shaped, and nearly 4ft deep.

W Roy 1793; A Allan 1900; J H Craw 1930; J K St Joseph 1955; 1957; 1958; 1961

The line of the W side of the camp, in the form of a stony scarp, the NW angle, and a short stretch of the N side (again in the form of a scarp) are the only indications of this Roman camp.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (EGC) 12 January 1964

The entire area of this camp is under plough and no ground surface remains can be seen, apart from traces of the W side, surviving under the modern field dyke.

Visited by OS (BS) 16 April 1975

This camp covers 66 ha (165 acres) and therefore presumably dates the the Severan campaigns. The line of the W rampart and a short length of the N side indistinctly survive as a stony scarp beneath the field wall.

D J Breeze 1979; J K St Joseph 1969

See also NT45SE 5 which notes evidence of the camp in the area of the Church in the early 19th Century. This was originally dismissed but has now been proved by aerial photographs.

Information from C A Appleby March 1988.