Publication Account

Date 17 December 2011

Event ID 921684

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/921684

The camp at Dalginross, lying on the plain to the south of the fort, was first recorded in 1755 by Roy (1793: 63–4, Pl. XI). He planned the camp as an earthwork, but it has since been ploughed and is only now known as a cropmark. It measures 318m from WSW to ENE by 293m, enclosing 9.2ha (almost 23 acres). Entrances are recorded on all four sides, all protected by Stracathro-type gates.

Excavations by St Joseph on the NNW side of the camp in 1966 recorded that the ditch was filled with silt and some large stones (RCAHMS St Joseph Collection: Notebook 4). Later excavations at the east clavicula recorded that the ditch was V-shaped with an ‘ankle-breaker’ and measured 1.9m in width and 1.8m in depth; it was recut to a shallower depth (1.7m wide and 0.8m deep). There were traces of a rampart some 0.23m in height and 1.45m in width. The oblique traverse ditch was 2m wide and 0.75m deep and was recut with a U shaped ditch, 2.55m wide and 0.9m deep (Rogers 1993: 277–86). The excavations at the eastern gate suggested that the entrance ditches were backfilled with turves prior to recutting, signifying deliberate slighting on abandonment. There was an indeterminate period of time between the two phases of use.

The excavations also recorded a single post-hole just inside the recut clavicula, which they suggested could have held a stake pushed into the bank (Rogers 1993: 286; see above, section 7a).

A series of pits is visible inside the camp. Some are larger pits which may represent quarrying activities, but others run in rows within the camp and are reminiscent of the pits inside the camps at Inchtuthil.

Pennant noted a series of oblong hollows outside the north side of the camp, and excavations by the local schoolmaster revealed large quantities of wood-charcoal (1776: ii, 98). Crawford noted that these could be lilia rather than ovens because they were outside the camp (1949: 43), but ovens outside camps are not unheard of (see Carronbridge, Inchtuthil and possibly Drumlanrig II).

There are numerous stray finds in the vicinity of the fort, including Antonine finds, and coins of Vespasian, Domitian and Alexander Severus (ad 222–35). A second possible camp (Dalginross II) lies in the annexe to the fort.

R H Jones