Archaeology Notes

Event ID 721000

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/721000

NT70NE 16 7904 0964.

(NT 7904 0964) Roman Signal Station (R)

OS 6"map, (1962).

The Roman Signal Station on the NE end of Brownhart Law was discovered from the air in 1945 by Dr St Joseph, who dug a trial trench across it in the following year.

It is rectangular on plan with rounded angles, 54' E-W by 41' within a turf rampart about 15' thick, which now stands 18" high. The entrance, 10' wide, is in the centre of the E side facing Dere Street, 45' distant. A single ditch runs from the gate round the SE angle and along the S side to the SW angle, where it becomes double; the two ditches then continue round the rest of the work until the gate is again reached. On the N side the inner ditch is 6' wide and the outer ditch 9'; each was originally about 3' deep. The absence of the outer ditch on the S is probably due to the presence of rock immediately below the topsoil.

It seems evident that this post was not part of a signalling system organised along Dere Street, but was intended for communication with the signal station on Rubers Law, the summit of which is visible thirteen miles to the WNW.

RCAHMS 1956; J K St Joseph 1951.

As described above.

Visited by OS(JLD) 12 September 1960.

As described by the RCAHMS.

Resurveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS(TRG) 15 September 1976.