Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Chapel Farm, Lochore

Earthwork (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Chapel Farm, Lochore

Classification Earthwork (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 51040

Site Number NT19NE 5

NGR NT 1671 9623

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51040

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Fife
  • Parish Ballingry
  • Former Region Fife
  • Former District Dunfermline
  • Former County Fife

Archaeology Notes

NT19NE 5 1671 9623.

(Name NT 1671 9623) Site of Roman Camp (NR)

OS 6" map, (1920).

Supposed Roman camp, Lochore, Ballingry. The Form of this Camp is nearest to a square, but in many parts levelled and defaced .... however, there appears on the West side of it, three rows of ditches and as many ramparts of earth and stone, and on the side towards the Loch, is a round turret entirely analogous with Camp at Burnswark Hill (Dumfries 51 SE1). The total circumference of it (the camp) measures 2020 feet. To the south of the camp there is a large morass or moss. (A Gordon 1726).

Maitland (W Maitland 1757) gives the length as 250 yards and the breadth 'about eighty' and says that it was bounded 'with a rampart on all sides but the southern, which is bounded by Lochore.. Maitland adds that 'within the camp is the remains of an ancient chapel (NT19NE 4). Roy (W Roy 1793) described it as a Roman post 'of the stationary kind' big enough for 'a cohort or two only'. Lt Col Miller (Lt Col Miller 1857) says the ramparts were levelled about 1817 when a farm steading was put there. He adds that 'upon levelling the trenches, although the burnt ends of the palisades were found, no bones or arms ... were discovered'.

I visited Lochore in July 1925, and was able to locate three parallel ditches on the north side visible both as depressions and as belts of darker green grass in a hayfield. The outermost ditch could be traced for a length of about 800 feet; the western portion was visible as a belt of darker green oats. The other two ditches are visible only in the eatern field, for a length of about 400 feet. The outer ditch turns south-eastwards at the east end, forming a slightly rounded corner. At a distance from the corner of a little more than 100 feet is a break and a causeway. The ditch then continues for about another 100 feet where it appears to stop. The length of the east side is about 300 feet.

About 400 feet south-west of Chapel Farm is a clump of trees. On the west of this are three sides of an enclosure, visible as green lines in oats (length of sides about 200ft.) There is a gap in the south-west corner.

The remains described and seen do not conform to those on any mediaeval site I know, and the fact that the chief mediaeval defensive site, the important site of Lochore (NT19NE 1 ), is half a mile distant to the east-south-east on the other side of the now-drained loch, seems against a mediaeval origin. Further evidence is needed before the remains can be considered Roman.

O G S Crawford 1949; OSA 1793; RCAHMS 1933.

The site, trenched by Mr Henderson, of Glencraig, is not Roman.

CBA (5th Report) 1950, 9.

Trial trenches were dug at Chapel Farm on behalf of the Lochgelly Antiquarian Society: a number of ditches were located but no datable finds were made. Dr Wainwright visited the site and suggested that it was probably mediaeval. Mr Henderson (CBA Report 1950) has left the district. (Information from Mr J Westwater, Station Road, Lochgelly). The site was under water when visited. the crop marks would appear to have enclosed the raised area on which Chapel Farm is placed. The situation, low-lying ground on the edge of Loch Ore and subject to flooding, is a poor tactical position for a Roman Fort: it is also overlooked by higher ground to the north.

The meagre evidence suggests a homestead moat with possible manor-house and chapel. (see NT19NE 4).

Visited by OS(AC) 13 March 1959.

Activities

Field Visit (16 June 1925)

‘Roman Camp’, near Chapel Farm.

In the Itinerarium Septentrionale (1727) by Alexander Gordon, p. 36, there is a description of a ‘Roman Camp’ in this parish ‘at a Place called Lochore’ which was ‘in many Parts levell'd and defaced ... however there appears on the West side of it, three Rows of Ditches, and as many Ramparts of Stone and Earth, and on the side towards the Loch, is a round Turret entirely analogous with the Camp at Burnswork Hill. The total circumference of it measures 2020 Feet or 444 Paces’. The Statistical Account (1793), vii, p. 315, repeats these details, saying further that the ‘camp... is still remarkably entire’, but the New Statistical Account (1837), ix, p. 446, affirms that ‘no vestige remains of the Roman Camp said to have been in this parish’.

RCAHMS 1933, visited 16 June 1925.

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions