Cargill

NO13NE 71 162 376.

Air photography has recorded the cropmarks of at least three ring-ditches immediately SW of the Roman fortlet NO13NE 26. The westernmost measures 27m in internal diameter, that in the centre about 15m, and that to the E, 22m. Information from RCAHMS (SMF) 18 October 1990.

NO13NE 71 162 376.

NO 163 376 A large-scale resistivity and magnetometer survey greatly clarified the form of the Roman fortlet defences, which were already known from the air. The site proved to be 0.5ha (1.24 acres) in internal area, with 'parrot beak'-style ditch entrance breaks for gates in its N and S sides. Four ring features, thought to be roundhouses, were already known from the air, just to the SW of the Roman site. The survey produced a further 15 such structures, along with a crescent-shaped underground structure which appears to be stone-lined and seems likely to represent a souterrain. A linear high-resistance feature just to the S of the fortlet lines up on the via principalis of the larger Cargill fort, c 265m to the E, and may represent a Roman road.

Fieldwalking on the site produced no Roman pottery, but a number of shards of late 1st-century bottle glass (which would match the Flavian date of the fortlet) were recovered, along with one shard of mid-2nd-century glass. The site also yielded a block of Roman raw glass (suggesting evidence of glassworking), along with an Iron Age lipped terret ring. The latter is a southern English type, of which the only other example found in Scotland comes from the Roman fort of Newstead.

Sponsor: Roman Gask Project.

D J Woolliscroft and B Hoffmann 2003

NO13NE 71 162 376.

NO 163 376 Resistivity survey.

Sponsor: Roman Gask Project.

D J Woolliscroft and B Hoffmann 2003

NO13NE 71 162 376.

NO 163 376 Magnetometry survey.

Sponsor: Roman Gask Project.

D J Woolliscroft and B Hoffmann 2003

NO 163 376 The substantial magnetic survey conducted in 2003 was repeated on a larger scale and with modern equipment. A far clearer image was obtained of the ring features known to exist to the SW of the Roman installation, at least one of which can now been seen to have two opposing entrances. There was still no sign of any internal features in the fortlet, however, which is in line with previous aerial and geophysical results, and with a trial excavation undertaken by JK St.Joseph in the 1960s.

Archive: The Roman Gask Project

Funder: The Roman Gask Project

DJ Woolliscroft, The Roman Gask Project, 2013

(Source: DES)