Publication Account

Date 17 December 2011

Event ID 920881

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/920881

The camps at Bochastle, lying immediately to the west of Bochastle Roman fort, were first discovered in 1945 by St Joseph from the air. The site lies to the west of Callander on low-lying ground between the Eas Gobhain and the Garbh Uisge in the upper reaches of the River Teith. The ground rises sharply to Bochastle Hill to the west. The dimensions of the camp are some 570m in length from north to south by 384m across, enclosing some 21.4ha (almost 53 acres). An interior linear cropmark in its western sector probably represents a secondary phase of use. This reduces the width of the camp (II ) to about 341m, enclosing an area of 19.5ha (just over 48 acres). The camp has Stracathro-type gates in its north and south sides; these lie opposite one another, east of the centre. No obvious gates are recorded in the east or west sides. Excavations on the north side of the camp in 1969 by St Joseph revealed a ditch which he interpreted as not conclusively Roman, measuring up to 4.2m wide and 1.4m deep (RCA HMS St Joseph Collection: Notebook 5). A further evaluation on the north side in 1988 revealed no archaeological remains (Duffy 1998a).

A small enclosure attached to the south part of the east side of the camp, close to the corner, may represent the remains of an annexe or attached camp, although its Roman origin is by no means confirmed. It measures 78m by at least 66m, thereby enclosing a minimum additional 0.53ha (1.3 acres). If it were Roman in date, it could relate to either phase of occupation of the camp site.

R H Jones 2011