lanarkshire-1978/03_152

Transcription

No. 249 -- ROMAN MONUMENTS -- No. 250

that of the labour camps associated with the E sector of
the Wall. ¹

581717 (Fort) NS 57 SE October 1975
580718 (Bridge)
586722 (Temporary Camp)

249 Roman Watch-tower, Beattock Summit (Site).
Inspection of air photographs taken by the RAF (541/
A/530, 3137-8) revealed the presence of a circular
ditched enclosure approximately 380 m E of Beattock
Summit and 27 m NE of the Roman road from Carlisle
to the Forth (No. 263), which at this point runs along
the foot of the steep SW face of Nap Hill. The work was
partially excavated by one of the Commission's officers
in 1966 ² and shown to be a Roman watch-tower (Fig. 72)
similar to those found on Gask Ridge, ³ but it has
now been almost totally destroyed by afforestation.
The ditch, which enclosed an area about 7 m in
diameter and measured 1.5 m in average width by not
more than 0.3 m in depth, had presumably served for
drainage rather than defence; it had been interrupted
for an entrance approximately 1.5 m wide on the SW,
the side facing the road, and there were traces of a low
stony bank bordering its outer lip on the E and NW.
Surprisingly, the ground enclosed sloped comparatively
steeply from NE to SW, and it had therefore been neces-
sary to cut back into the hillside in order to secure a
more level stance for the tower. The latter, a timber
structure raised upon a framework of four uprights, each
about 0.2 m thick and square in cross-section, was
centrally placed and was designed to be 3.2 m square
over all but it had been slightly distorted in the process
of laying it out; its basement floor consisted of a light
pitching of stones.
Although no datable relics were found during the
excavation, it seems probable that the tower, which
exhibited only one period of occupation and had been
deliberately dismantled on abandonment, was associated
with the Antonine fortlet of Redshaw Burn (No. 259),
situated two and a half Roman miles (3.7 km) distant
along the Roman road to the SE. Its position, barely
30 m above the valley floor, affords scarcely any outlook
to NE and SW, and the main function of the tower must
have been to keep watch and ward along the road
leading to the fortlet from the NW. In dimensions and
plan it bears a close resemblance to the watch-tower of
White Type, Dumfriesshire, ⁴ lying a similar distance to
the SE of Redshaw Burn (see Introduction, p. 37).

999153 NS 91 NE November 1972


250 Roman Fort, Bothwellhaugh. The Roman fort
of Bothwellhaugh (Fig. 73) occupies a strong defensive
position on the right bank of the River Clyde immediately
NE of its confluence with the South Calder Water,
overlooking the now wholly inundated haughs to the
E of Bothwell village from which the site takes its name.
Its existence was first recorded at the end of the 18th
century, ⁵ at which time cultivation was just beginning
to encroach upon the remains. In the course of the next
century, however, the site was so heavily damaged by
agriculture and afforestation that it was only redis-
covered shortly before the Second World War, and
identified as Roman by excavation. The examination,
carried out by J M Davidson in 1938-9, ⁶ was restricted
to the defences of the fort on the NW, SW and SE sides,
the rampart and ditches on the remaining side being
located by the Commission in 1967-8. ⁷ An external
bath-house, subsequently discovered by the Com-
mission's officers to the NW of the fort during the
construction of a roadway for the newly created Strath-
clyde Park, was excavated in 1975, ⁸ and, at the time of
writing is threatened with inundation. The following
account and the accompanying plan are thus based upon
three excavation reports. ⁹
The fort is situated at the W end of a broad level
promontory, protected on the NW and SW by an abrupt
fall in 16 m to the banks of the South Calder Water and
the River Clyde respectively. Between the fort and the
equally steep NE flank of the promontory there is an
extensive area of flat ground, which was probably tra-
versed by the Roman road No. 264. The easiest access
was by way of the comparatively narrow neck of the
promontory on the E. The site is at present obscured
by a dense growth of scrub, and only the SE and NE
ramparts can still be clearly seen above ground, the for-
mer appearing as a grassy bank standing 1.5 m in
maximum height and spread in places to a thickness of
more than 15 m, the latter, 1.1 m in average height,
being partly masked by a modern track and a field-
boundary that cut obliquely across it.
Excavation showed that the fort was trapezoidal on
plan; its dimensions over the rampart were approximately
152 m by 131 m and it occupied an area of 1.65 ha (4.1
acres). The main defence had been a clay rampart
measuring from 7.2 m to 8.1 m in thickness, the inner
and outer face of which were originally supported by a
stone base. There was evidence to show that at some
time the rampart front, at least on the NE, had been
repaired; to the S of the NE gate the original outer face
had been cut away and replaced with a turf cheek, while
to the N the turf had been applied as an additional
revetment which increased the rampart thickness beside

1 PSAS, lxxxix (1955-6), 329-36.
2 Britannia, vii (1976), 33-8.
3 PSAS, xxxv (1900-1), 25-35.
4 South-western Scotland, 24.
5 Stat. Acct., iii (1793), 458; ibid. (reissue), vii (1973), 243.
6 South-western Scotland, 172-87.
7 Britannia, vi (1975), 20-35.
8 Current Archaeology, v (1975-6), 154-6; the Commissioners
are indebted to the excavator, Mr L J F Keppie, for assist-
ance in preparing this report.
9 Certain discrepancies which can be detected between
Davidson's account and his published plan (South-western
Scotland, pl. lxii) suggest that the latter was intended rather
as a sketch: in particular the N angle appears to be displaced
about 10 m to the NW. The plan and measurements given
here thus represent an attempt to correlate the visible
surface traces and the results of the 1938-9 and 1967-8
excavations.

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