Archaeology Notes

Event ID 767073

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/767073

NN81SE 7 8731 1457.

Excavation of this watch tower, previously identified from the air, showed it to be a circular enclosure c.14m in diameter defined by a 'Punic' ditch c.0.8m deep and between 1.5 and 3.0m wide, with an entrance gap to the south-east. There was no trace of an internal bank. In the interior a rectangular tower measuring c.3.5 by 2.5m was represented by four post-pits. Two foundation-trenches between the two pits nearest the entrance perhaps supported a ladder.

J K St Joseph 1951; F O Grew 1981

The site falls on a small rounded hillock, there are no ground surface indications of this watch tower.

Visited by OS 22 April 1975

Excavation was undertaken in 1979 to obtain dating evidence and a complete plan. The four-post tower was more elongated in plan than anticipated and was provided at the front with steps giving access to the first-floor level, a feature not readily paralleled in excavated towers anywhere in the Roman empire. The one fragment of probable mortarium recovered from the single enclosing ditch is commensurate with a Flavian ditch. Disturbance of the post-holes indicated that the tower had been deliberately demolished.

W S Hanson and J G P Friell 1995