Bona

NH63NW 2 6027 3796.

(NH 6027 3796) Site of the Roman Station called Banatia {R}

OS6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1905)

On the flat gravelly peninsula which divides Loch Ness from Loch Dochfour, are traces of a small Roman encampment. It is an oblong square, rounded at the corners, and encircled by ramparts of earth, and an irregular ditch, from twenty to forty feet wide. On a square mound, closely adjoining stand the ruins of an old baronial keep, called Castle Spirital.

G and P Anderson 1847; NSA 1845. (A Rose, A Clark and R Macpherson)

On this peninsula there has been a military station of two small forts. The outer fort is a square of 50 paces by 53, which on the one side is protected by the river, and on the other by the small loch; and, next the field, it has a ditch and rampart. On the inner side of the peninsula is another rampart and ditch. The other square fort, 24 paces square, has rather the appearance of being built with modern masonry Grant 1822.

The Roman camp is said to have been in a good state of preservation until the Caledonian Canal was deepened, when the ditch surrounding it was filled in, and the ground where the camp stood cultivated.

Name Book 1870.

The two small square forts at Bona are evidently not Roman.

O G S Crawford 1947; Chalmers 1807

No earthworks exist at this site - now a cultivated field.

Visited by OS (J L D) 21 March 1962.

No change

Visited by OS (N K B) 23 January 1970.