Househill, Dunipace
Temporary Camp (Roman)
Site Name Househill, Dunipace
Classification Temporary Camp (Roman)
Canmore ID 47052
Site Number NS88SW 9
NGR NS 84300 82520
NGR Description Centred NS 84300 82520
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/47052
- Council Falkirk
- Parish Dunipace
- Former Region Central
- Former District Falkirk
- Former County Stirlingshire
NS88SW 9 centred NS 84300 82520
NS 838 828. Indeterminate remains: In the open woodland near the S side of the road, and 640 yds NW of Househill, there is an earthen bank in the form of an arc, 210' long. It is spread to a width of about 18' and stands 3' high. It is broken by two gaps, one about 4' in width, in the W, and another, 17' wide, in the N. There is nothing at either end of the bank to show that it ever continued beyond its present length, and its origin and purpose are uncertain. The narrow ditch that runs SW from the N arc appears to have been made for land drainage.
RCAHMS 1963, visited 1954
NS 8381 8281: An earthen bank as described. Its purpose is uncertain but it may be contemporary with a nearby boundary bank and ditch, and it could be an incomplete plantation bank.
Not an antiquity.
Visited by OS (DWR) 22 January 1974.
A breach in this earthen bank to allow access from the adjacent field has enabled a section to be examined. Built directly on the old land surface, it consists of clay for the bottom 0.2m with topsoil above this bringing its height to 0.9m. Its width was about 5m.
N B Aitchison 1981b.
The SW angle together with 180m of the SW and 150m of the SE sides of a marching-camp has been located on the N bank of the River Carron, immediately NE of the Hills of Dunipace. Since neither length is interrupted by a gate the total area of the camp is probably considerable. (Information from G S Maxwell)
S S Frere 1984.
The northerly gateway on the W side, along with its titulum, was excavated. Some 300m NNW, the NW angle of the camp was identified as a curving earthwork still surviving in woodland. The W side thus has a length of c.720m, the N side is c.650m. The camp has an area of around 130 acres.
S S Frere 1989
Examination of this 130 acre camp, by G S Maxwell and J K St Joseph, was completed in 1989. Trial trenches confirmed the Roman character of a faint reversed cropmark apparently indicating the course of the S side approaching the SE angle, but attempts to follow it W to connect with the established length of this side were frustrated by erosion and hillwash. In a recently thinned plantation at NS 8471 8228 a curving scarp survived to indicate the SE angle; thus 3 of the camps 4 angles survive in elevation.
S S Frere 1991
Recent fieldwork by St Joseph has identified the earthen bank previously described as indeterminate remains as forming part of the NW corner of the Roman Temporary Camp at Househill, Dunipace.
Information from RCAHMS (NC) 18 December 1991.
Field Visit (July 1977)
Househill NS 838 828 NS88SW 9
An earthenbank up to 5.5m in thickness and standing to a height of 1m runs in an arc from NE to SW for a distance of about 60m.
RCAHMS 1978, visited July 1977
(RCAHMS 1963, p. 446, No. 580)
Watching Brief (21 January 2010)
NS 8453 8286 (centred on) A watching brief was undertaken on 21 January 2010 on groundworks for a footpath in the SW corner of the hospital grounds. The site was considered sensitive due to its proximity to Dunipace Roman marching camp. A shallow topsoil was recorded above the ash surface of an earlier modern footpath. The excavations went no deeper than the ash surface and nothing of archaeological significance was observed.
Archive: RCAHMS
Funder: Expanded Structures Ltd
Ray Cachart – Alder Archaeology Ltd
Publication Account (17 December 2011)
The large camp at Househill Dunipace lies on undulating ground on the north side of the River Carron, some 600m north-west of the concentration of camps at Lochlands, just north of the Antonine Wall. Part of the camp survives in earthwork form, with further stretches of two sides recorded as cropmarks. The north-western corner was first surveyed as ‘indeterminate remains’ by RCAHMS in 1954 (RCAHMS 1963: 446 No. 580). Cropmarks recorded during aerial survey in the 1980s led to the various pieces being put together and
interpreted as a camp by Maxwell in 1988 (Frere 1989: 312). The camp measures just over 800m from NNW to SSE by almost 650m transversely and enclosed around 54ha (134 acres). An entrance gap with titulus is visible in the cropmarks of the WSW side. Parts of the northwest, north-east and south-east corners survive as slight earthworks in woodland, along with a short stretch of the WSW side (Frere 1989: 271; Frere 1991: 230). The west corner rampart survives to a height of 0.9m and is spread 5.4m wide (RCAHMS 1963: 446). Its original width may have been some 5m set on a clay footing (Aitchison 1981). Excavations on the ditch by Maxwell and St Joseph recorded that it measured up to 4.5m in width and 1.5m in depth (Frere 1988: 427)
Owing to its large size, this camp is usually regarded as Severan in date (Maxwell 1991: 111–12), although small trial trenches on the site have not produced any dating evidence. However, if the camp was struck when the nearby Flavian and Antonine forts at Camelon were occupied, then it is curious that it was not located south of the river on the Lochlands promontory, closer to the fort.
R H Jones.
