Publication Account
Date 17 December 2011
Event ID 923332
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/923332
The camp at Logie Durno was discovered from the air by St Joseph in 1975 (St Joseph 1977: 141), just to the east of the River Urie, some 5km from Mither Tap of Bennachie, which dominates the surrounding landscape. It lies on ground that slopes quite significantly, with a 35m height-difference between the highest and lowest points within the camp; its perimeter is slightly irregular in form. The farms of Easterton and Westerton lie within the camp, which is now under arable and improved pasture. Nothing appears to survive of the camp above ground, although a very low swelling on the northeast side (not depicted on illus 169) may represent the ploughed out remains of a rampart.
Part of the camp has been visible as cropmarks, with much of the rest of the perimeter established by excavations between 1975 and 1977 and depicted as a dashed line on illus 169 (St Joseph 1978a). It measures about 959m from north-west to south-east by about 653m transversely, enclosing an area of some 58.6ha (almost 145 acres), and is the largest camp north of the Forth–Clyde isthmus. The excavated ditch was usually V-shaped, up to 3.65m in width and 1.4m in depth (St Joseph 1978a: 273). Three tituli are clearly visible on the air photographs, two in the south-west side (where there is a significant change of angle at the northern gate) and one on the northern part of the north-east side, also at a change of angle. Two further tituli were recorded through excavation, in the southern part of the north-east side and the centre of the north-west side. That on the north-west side had a shallow ditch, some 0.5m in depth and set about 15m from the entrance. Illustration 169 includes the results from St Joseph’s excavations (1978a).
St Joseph used the evidence of Logie Durno’s size and location to build up an argument for the area as the location of Tacitus’ famed battle of Mons Graupius, with nearby Bennachie as the titular hill (1978a).
R H Jones.
