Camelon - Ardoch - Strageath - Cargill Roman Road

RR7 NN 9500 1880 to NN 9999 1952.

The Roman road is traceable as it passes E through moorland and forest. Nevertheless, as Christison (1900) observes, occasional farm and forest traffic have caused damage. This extant grassy lane or track continues as far as the point where, as Crawford (1949) notes, it is joined by the road from Gask Church coming up from the S. It then becomes overlain by the modern metalled road heading towards Perth.

D Christison 1900; O G S Crawford 1949; I D Margary 1957.

From NN 9500 1880 the Roman road is used as a grassy track to a point where the road from Gask church (NN91NE 40) comes into it from the S at NN 9601 1886. From here eastwards it is a modern metalled road.

O G S Crawford 1949.

A Roman Road, 41 miles long, runs from Strageath to Kirriemuir. It runs eastward from Strageath crossing the R. Earn at an unidentified point and proceeding along the Gask Ridge where it is accompanied by a series of ten signal stations. It then heads NE to the Roman fort Bertha (NO02NE 25), crosses the R Tay and traverses Grassy Walls camp (NO12NW 8).

Between here and Cardean (NO24NE 12) it is intermittently visible, and from Cardean it ran to Kirriemuir.

I D Margary 1957.

NN 9500 1880 to NN 9504 1880 The road runs between an old hedge line and an old plantation bank, as a grassy track (WDJ).

NN 9504 1880 to NN 9545 1883 A cart track or occasional road runs between old plantation banks and on the line of the Roman road (EGC).

NN 9454 1883 to NN 9600 1886 A cart track or occasional road runs on the line of the road (EGC).

NN 9600 1886 to NN 9633 1888 The modern road is on the course of the Roman road (WDJ).

NN 9633 1888 to NN 9772 1897 The road runs between an old field banks as an old track overgrown in places (WDJ).

NN 9772 1897 to NN 9858 1911 The road runs between old field banks as an occasional road (WDJ).

NN 9858 1911 to NN 9999 1952 There is no trace of the road (WDJ).

Visited by OS (WDJ) May 1967; (EGC) August 1967.

NN 965 188 Kirkhill, Trinity Gask. The Roman road along the Gask Ridge was examined (by Miss M B Walker and Mr. G S Maxwell on behalf of the Department of the Environment summary report, DAES, 1971, 57) in a section cut for drainage by the Forestry Commission. A single well-packed layer of small stones, 7.6m wide, had been laid on the Roman turf. V-sectioned ditches flanking the road were 0.6m deep from this surface.

Wilson 1972.

There is no obvious reason why the road should run to Kirriemuir since there is no known Roman site there.

There is equally no obvious reason why the road should not have run from Flavian Cardean via the line of the modern road to NO 3251 4823 and continued on this line which leads directly for the Flavian camp at Finavon (NO45NE 22), 13 and a half miles away. From there it would presumably continue to the Flavian site at Stracatho (NO66NW 18).

Information from OS (ES) 1973.