Publication Account

Date 17 December 2011

Event ID 922887

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/922887

The camp at Kair House in the Howe of the Mearns was first recorded from the air by St Joseph in 1945 (St Joseph 1951a: 65), although the area had been noted as a potential site for the Roman army by Roy (1793: 86–7). Subsequent aerial survey has recorded most of all four sides as cropmarks. The camp lies along the south-west part of a small hill above the Bervie Water, some 15km from the coast at Inverbervie. It is also located almost midway between the large camps of Raedykes and Balmakewan.

The camp measures around 870m from north-east to south-west by about 600m transversely, enclosing an area of some 53.5ha (132 acres). A titulus is clearly visible in the centre of the south-west side, and a possible titulus in the north-east side, just to the west of the road. Given the size of the camp, it is assumed that it probably had six gates. Most of the camp lies in arable fields, but a small stretch of upstanding rampart survives on the north-east side: 18m survives in a small grass field and a further 11m in a conifer plantation; any accompanying ditch could not be traced. The rampart is spread about 3.7m wide and measures 0.3m high in the plantation, and is 5.4m wide and up to 1.1m high in the grass, although it is increasingly disturbed and reduced as it approaches the road.

R H Jones.