Publication Account

Date 17 December 2011

Event ID 920878

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/920878

There is a small cluster of camps at Birrens and Broadlea, close to the Roman fort at Birrens, on fairly level ground in a landscape dominated by Burnswark hill to the northwest. A further two camps lie about 1.5km to the northwest at Middlebie Hill.

One camp (I, not shown on illus 86), a ‘Flavian enclosure’, was recorded under the fort at Birrens during excavations in the 1960s (Robertson 1975: 73–5, fig 19). It was apparently filled in before the construction of the Hadrianic fort on the site, and finds from the ditch silting included glass and pottery, all dating to the late 1st century ad (Robertson 1975: 75). The ditch was at least 71m by 21m and measured 2.1m in width and 0.9m in depth (Robertson 1975: 73).

Three other small camps and a possible fortlet were recorded south and east of the fort (across the Mein Water,also see Broadlea), along with a possible fourth camp to the north-west (camp III ), although this may be one of the annexes to the forts (St Joseph 1951: 57–8).

Camp II was discovered in 1948 as a cropmark by St Joseph from the air (1951a: 57–8) lying to the ESE of the fort across the Mein Water. It measures 341m from ENE to WSW by 245m transversely, enclosing 8.3ha (20.6 acres). A titulus is visible close to the centre of the WSW side but none is recorded from the other sides. A linear cropmark with a rounded corner within its interior could represent a further camp, but the evidence is inconclusive.

Camp III consists of the cropmark of a rounded corner and stretches of two adjacent sides just to the north-west of the fort, and was recorded in the 1940s by St Joseph. At least 85m of the south-west side and 25m of the northeast are known, and the site is probably either the remains of a temporary camp or of an annexe to the fort (St Joseph 1951a: 57).

R H Jones 2011