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Black Hill
Signal Station (Roman)
Site Name Black Hill
Classification Signal Station (Roman)
Alternative Name(s) Bridge Farm; Black Hill Tumulus; Black Hill, Meikleour
Canmore ID 28539
Site Number NO13NE 7
NGR NO 1760 3915
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/28539
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Caputh
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
NO13NE 7 1760 3915.
(NO 1760 3915) Black Hill (Tumulus) (NR)
OS 6" map (1901)
A Roman signal tower, thought at one time to be a disc-barrow, on Black Hill, was excavated by Abercromby, in 1903-4 and proved by further excavations in 1939. Finds included iron nails, probable Roman glass and the end of a bronze pin (? fibula).
I A Richmond 1940; J Roman Stud 1940; J Abercromby 1904
Field Visit (27 February 1969)
This signal station consists of a flat-topped rectangular mound, surrounded by a ditch now reduced to a terrace on all but the S side. There are traces of a possible rampart along the top rim of the mound. No trace of a causeway is now visible, the site now being much obscured by undergrowth. The various articles found are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] (Accession nos. GP 104-9).
Visited by OS (WDJ) 27 February 1969
Field Visit (8 December 1990)
On the summit of Black Hill, a glacial knoll 18m high and situated about 350m NE of Bridge Farm, there are the denuded remains of a subrectangular earthwork which originally enclosed a Roman watch-tower. Examined in 1903 by Abercromby, who identified it as 'the fortified residence of some small chief', it was more thoroughly trenched by Richmond and McIntyre in 1939 and its Roman character was securely established.
This later excavation revealed the post-holes of a timber tower about 4m square within the interior; the enclosing rampart was of turf, 3.7m thick and it survived to a height of 1.1m above the old ground-level.
Of the external ditch, little more than a terrace can now be seen around the shoulder of the knoll, but originally it was of V-profile, 5.2m wide and interrupted by a narrow entrance-causeway on the NNW. The upcast of the ditch was spread as a low bank beyond the lip of the counterscarp. None of the Roman artefacts recovered during either excavation could be closely dated (unless the fragment of 'wavy glass' mentioned by Abercromby belonged to a pillar-moulded bowl of the type common in Flavian times), but the site's structural affinity to towers on the Forth-Tay road (Robertson 1974; Maxwell 1990, 353-5) suggests very strongly that its single period of occupation occurred in the period AD 82-7.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 8 December 1992.
J Abercromby 1904; I A Richmond 1940; A S Robertson 1974; G S Maxwell 1990.
External Reference (11 April 1994)
NMS GP 104-9. From the Black Hill Tumulus, Meikleour, Perthshire:- (104) Flint scraper
(105) Fragment of green glass
(106) Bronze pin
(107) Block of sandstone 5 1/4" x 4" partly perforated
(108) An "elfin" tobacco pipe
(109) Small quantity of burnt bones.
Presented by the Hon. J Abercromby, 1904.
Information from Dr J A Sheridan (NMS typescript continuation catalogue), 11 April 1994.
