Archaeology Notes

Event ID 717572

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/717572

NT54SE 18 centred on 5520 4420.

NT 5520 4420. Air reconnaissance has revealed a large Roman temporary camp at Blainslie barely 1/2 mile south of the very large camp of St Leonards (NT54NW 14). The ditch has been recorded along the whole of the south side, where it is interrupted for a central gate, along most of the west side and part of the east. The SE angle is turned in a curve of large radius.

The south side of the camp is about 1200ft long; the best estimate that can be given for the N-S dimension is 1700ft.

Crop-marks suggest there may be more than one camp, and further observation is needed.

J K St Joseph 1973

At Blainslie, about 3km N of Kedslie, more of the perimeter of the large camp previously identified has now been recorded: the NW angle and about 100m of the N side were seen in the favourable conditions of 1984, confirming that the dimension from N to S is about 510m and the area enclosed therefore about 8.8 ha (46.7 acres). The camp may thus be comparable with the site at Drygrange in both size and plan, and the pair could perhaps be taken to represent successive bivouacs of the same unit proceeding N through Lauderdale; any of the roughly similar camps at Pennymuir, Millside Wood, St Boswells or Pathhead might indicate different stages in the same journey.

G S Maxwell and D R Wilson 1987