Rough Castle Fort
Rough Castle Fort is a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall 2 kilometres south east of Bonnybridge near Tamfourhill in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. It is owned by the National Trust for Scotland; the Antonine Wall dates from about 143 AD. The ends of the wall were uncertain for many years. In the east Carriden near Bo'ness on the Forth was a endpoint. In the west is Old Kilpatrick on the Clyde, although there were forts beyond that at Bishopton and Barochan Hill; the fort is one of the best-preserved of the forts constructed along the Wall. Built against the southern rear face of the Wall, the fort was defended by 6 metre thick turf ramparts and surrounded by defensive ditches. Gateways were provided through the main Wall to the north, through the walls on the other three sides of the fort. Causeways were constructed across the main Antonine and secondary defensive ditches, affording easy access to and from the fort; the fort had an area of about 4,000 square metres. The fort contained several buildings, made of stone from a time when this was a less common construction material.
The traces of the commander's house, the barracks, the headquarters, the bath house and a granary have been discovered. Although the original buildings have not survived, these buildings' foundations were discovered during excavations in 1902-03, 1932 and 1957-61. A video reconstruction of the site has been produced. Inscriptions found on recovered artifacts indicate that the fort based 480 men of the Cohors VI Nerviorum of Nervii, foot soldiers drawn from a north-eastern Gallic tribe; the military road on the south side of the Wall, which enabled transport between all forts, is still well defined and there is a fine length of rampart and ditch still intact to the west. An altar to Victory was found in 1843 to the south of the fort. Other finds include some glass from a window and leather shoes. A feature of the defences at the fort, discovered during the excavations, is a series of pits lying to the north west of the causeway across the Antonine ditch; these pits, known as lilia, would have contained sharpened stakes at the bottom.
The lilia were positioned to help defend the vulnerable northern gateway through the Wall. Near the fort were a turf platform and gravel pits for building of the military road. Interestingly the bath house was built on an annexe; the fort was defended by Nervii and Flavius Betto was a commanding officer. One of the best overviews of the site is the video of the Bridgeness Slab by Falkirk Council, presented by Geoff Bailey, Keeper of Archeology and Local History at Falkirk Museum, from about 10 minutes. For early discoveries see Sir George Macdonald's writings. A sound and light show has been organised at Rough Castle in November 2018 to promote tourism. List of places in Falkirk district Media related to Rough Castle at Wikimedia Commons Antonine Wall: Rough Castle at Historic Envirnment Scotland website Rough Castle Fort on the Gazetteer for Scotland Falkirk Local History Society
Cadder
Cadder is a district of the town of Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is located 7 km north of Glasgow city centre, 0.5 km south of the River Kelvin, 1.5 km north-east of Bishopbriggs town centre, sited on the route of the Forth and Clyde Canal. There is a Glasgow council housing scheme of a similar name pronounced Cawder, in the district of Lambhill some 3 miles to the south-west along the Canal, built in the early 1950s. Within Cadder, there is Cawder Golf Club, which uses that original pronunciation. In antiquity, Cadder was the site of a Roman fort on the route of the Antonine Wall, its neighbouring forts are Balmuildy to the west and Kirkintilloch to the east although there are intermediate fortlets at Wilderness Plantation to the west and Glasgow Bridge to the east. The Second Legion may have been responsible for building the fort. John Clarke of the Glasgow Archaeological Society excavated the remains in the 1930s. Sir George Macdonald wrote about the excavation of the site.
The site was destroyed by sand quarrying in the 1940s. A sketch of the medieval motte made by Skinner still survives. One find at Cadder was an oil lamp, associated with the bath house of the fort. Before the Reformation the lands of Cadder and the kirk belonged to the Bishops of Glasgow. In the 18th century James Dunlop of Garnkirk being a wealthy landowner opposed Thomas Muir and the congregation at Cadder over who appointed their minister. Cadder Parish Church was described in the 19th century as a neat modern Gothic church. Cadder House was a property held by the Stirling family for generations. Cadder has a large cemetery, is the site of Strathkelvin Retail Park and Low Moss
Britannia
Britannia has been used in several different senses. The name is a Latinisation of the native Brittonic word for the island, Pretanī, which produced the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which in the fourth to the first centuries BC, designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Britain. In Modern Welsh the name remains Prydain. By the 1st century BC, Britannia came to be used for Great Britain specifically. After the Roman conquest in 43 AD, Britannia meant Roman Britain, a province covering the island south of Caledonia; when Roman Britain was divided into four provinces in 197 AD, two were called Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. Britannia is the name given to the female personification of the island, it is a term still used to refer to the whole island. In the 2nd century, Roman Britannia came to be personified as a goddess, armed with a trident and shield and wearing a Corinthian helmet; the name Britannia long survived the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century and yielded the name for the island in most European and various other languages, including the English Britain and the modern Welsh Prydain.
In the 9th century the associated terms Bretwalda and brytenwealda ealles ðyses ealonde were applied to some Anglo-Saxon kings to assert a wider hegemony in Britain and hyperbolic inscriptions on coins and titles in charters included the equivalent title rex Britanniae. However when England was unified the title used was rex Angulsaxonum. After centuries of declining use, the Latin form was revived during the English Renaissance as a rhetorical evocation of a British national identity. Following the Acts of Union in 1707, which joined the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, the personification of the martial Britannia was used as an emblem of British maritime power and unity, most notably in "Rule, Britannia!". A British cultural icon, she was featured on all modern British coinage series until the redesign in 2008, still appears annually on the gold and silver "Britannia" bullion coin series. In 2015 a new definitive £2 coin was issued, with a new image of Britannia, she is depicted in the Brit Awards statuette, the British Phonographic Industry's annual music awards.
The first writer to use a form of the name was the Greek explorer and geographer Pytheas in the 4th century BC. Pytheas referred to Prettanike or Brettaniai, a group of islands off the coast of North-Western Europe. In the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus referred to Pretannia, a rendering of the indigenous name for the Pretani people whom the Greeks believed to inhabit the British Isles. Following the Greek usage, the Romans referred to the Insulae Britannicae in the plural, consisting of Albion, Hibernia and many smaller islands. Over time, Albion came to be known as Britannia, the name for the group was subsequently dropped. Although emperor Claudius is attributed with the creation and unification of the province of Britannia in 43 AD, Julius Caesar had established Roman authority over the Southern and Eastern Britain dynasties during his two expeditions to the island in 55 and 54 BC. Just as Caesar himself had been an obside in Bithynia as a youth, he had taken the King's sons as obsides or hostages, back to Rome to be educated.
The Roman conquest of the island began in AD 43, leading to the establishment of the Roman province known in Latin as Britannia. The Romans never conquered the whole island, building Hadrian's Wall as a boundary with Caledonia, which covered the territory of modern Scotland, although the whole of the boundary marked by Hadrian's Wall lies within modern-day Northern England. A southern part of what is now Scotland was occupied by the Romans for about 20 years in the mid-2nd century AD, keeping in place the Picts to the north of the Antonine Wall. People living in the Roman province of Britannia were called Britons. Ireland, inhabited by the Scoti, was called Hibernia. Thule, an island "six days' sail north of Britain, near the frozen sea" Iceland, was never invaded by the Romans; the Emperor Claudius paid a visit while Britain was being conquered and was honoured with the agnomen Britannicus as if he were the conqueror. She appeared as a more regal-looking female figure. Britannia was soon personified as a goddess, looking similar to the goddess Minerva.
Early portraits of the goddess depict Britannia as a beautiful young woman, wearing the helmet of a centurion, wrapped in a white garment with her right breast exposed. She is shown seated on a rock, holding a spear, with a spiked shield propped beside her. Sometimes she leans on the shield. On another range of coinage, she is seated on a globe above waves: Britain at the edge of the world. Similar coin types were issued under Antoninus Pius. After the Roman withdrawal, the term "Britannia" remained in use in Britain and abroad. Latin was ubiquitous amongst native Brythonic writers and the term continued in the Welsh tradition that developed from it. Writing with variations on the term Britannia appeared in many Welsh works such as the Historia Britonum, Armes Prydein and the 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae, which gained unprecedented popularity throughout western Europe during the High Middle Ages. Following the migration of Brythonic Celts, the term Britannia came to refer to the Armorican peninsula (at least f
Glasgow Bridge, Kirkintilloch
Glasgow Bridge is the site of a road bridge over the Forth and Clyde Canal. The road bridge was built as a swing bridge, it now allows road users on the A803 to cross the canal. The bridge has undergone repairs over the years; when the canal was closed the water at the bridge was put through a culvert. The bridge in was reinstated 1990 for the re-opening of the canal. Just west of this bridge, a basin allows boats to launch from a slip; this bridge is marked on the 1st 6-inch OS map. Horses were used on the canal tow path, their work on the canal is celebrated at its eastern extension at The Helix with two unique equine sculptures known as The Kelpies. The'Stables' bar and restaurant was developed from the stables which supported the horses which serviced the canal work; the road sign outside informs drivers of the location of Craft daft. The fortlet can sometimes be seen in photographs taken from aircraft which have been taken at various times since 1955. Nothing identifiably Roman can be seen at the site anymore.
There have been no excavations to date. Aerial photography has however highlighted an area of around 20m square which could have been secured with the help of the turf rampart with its ditch. It's speculated; the site of the fortlet is just east of the bridge over the Forth and Clyde Canal which carries the A803. Kirkintilloch is east of the site with Low Moss to the south. There is a temporary Roman camp at Easter Cadder about half a mile away; this is on a raised piece of ground mid-way between the Glasgow Bridge fortlet and the main Roman fort at Kirkintilloch. If walking west, the line of the Wall changes course after the site of Glasgow Bridge Fortlet
Camelon
Camelon is a large settlement within the Falkirk council area, Scotland. The village is in the Forth Valley, 1.3 miles west of Falkirk, 1.3 miles south of Larbert and 2.6 miles east of Bonnybridge. The main road through Camelon is the A803 road. At the time of the 2001 census, Camelon had a population of 4,508. Human activity at Camelon pre-dates the Romans as Bronze Age items have been recovered from graves in the area. Camelon is the site of a series of Roman fortifications built sometimes between 80 and 83 AD. Camelon has been suggested as the southern fort of the Roman Gask Ridge separating the Highlands from the Lowlands; the Roman fort was under a mile north of the Antonine Wall. A Roman altar was found at Bogton Farm under a kilometer west of the fort. A Samian ware platter also associated with the site was found and can now be viewed at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. There are a lot of mythical stories about Camelon sometimes linking it with Camelot and Arthur's O'on. Hector Boece was the first historian to mention Camelon in his History of Scotland of 1522.
Stories of a legendary Roman harbour at Camelon first appeared in 1695. The legend of Camelon's twelve brass gates was widespread albeit dubious. More mundane items like leather shoes were found. Camelon developed when the canals were built in the 19th centuries. Much of the Forth and Clyde Canal opened in the 1770s over a decade after the Carron Iron Works were established; the Union Canal opened in 1822 and brought traffic from Edinburgh to Port Downie where the canals met. A couple of decades saw the coming of the railways. In 1831 the village was described as having a population of 809 with 250 men and boys employed in nail making. Historical industries included nail making, a tar processing plant and other chemical works, a shipbuilding business near Lock Sixteen and a distillery at Rosebank. In the early 20th century W. Alexander & Sons coachbuilders in Camelon. A flight of locks which joined the Union Canal with the Forth and Clyde Canal brought business to the village; this was replaced in 2002 with a rotating boat lift.
People from Camelon are known locally as Mariners. The name is best remembered by the Mariner Leisure Centre and in Mariners' Day. Mariners' Day is an annual children's fayre held on the second Saturday in June, it includes a parade and a crowning ceremony of the Queen along with fun and games for the children of Camelon. Camelon has good access for a village of its size with Camelon railway station lying on the Cumbernauld Line and the Edinburgh to Dunblane line. Next to the station there are amenities including the Mariner Leisure Centre; the main road through Camelon is the A803 road. Camelon is home to the junior football club Camelon Juniors, founded in 1920, who compete in the East of Scotland Football League. List of places in Falkirk council area Falkirk Local History Society page on Camelon Gazetteer for Scotland webpage on Camelon
Croy Hill
Croy Hill was a Roman fort and probable temporary camp on the Antonine Wall, near Croy, to the north east of the village in Scotland. Two communication platforms known as ‘expansions’ can be seen to the west of the fortlet. Alexander Park excavated the site in 1890-1891. Sir George Macdonald wrote about his excavation of the site which occurred in 1920, 1931, 1935. At Croy Hill, the ditch in front of the rampart was not excavated by the Romans, it is that hard basalt and dolerite of the hill was impossible to shape with Roman tools. This is the only place along the Wall. There is a bath house just outside one fort. A video reconstruction of the site has been produced. At Croy Hill three religious objects have been found: one, as fragments of a relief of Jupiter Dolichenus. Other artefacts found include a bronze arm purse, a storage jar filled with ashes, a fragment of "face mask" jar; these items are now kept in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow along with others like the altar found at Castlecary. Only four coins have been discovered near the fort and an axe was found near the hill.
A gravestone was discovered. It has been scanned and a video produced. Croy hill's neighbouring forts were Barr Hill to Westerwood to the east; the larger Roman forts of which this was not one had a nominal cohort of 1000 men but sheltered women and children as well although the troops were not allowed to marry. There is too to have been large communities of civilians around the site
Castellum
A castellum in Latin is usually: a small Roman fortlet or tower, a diminutive of castrum used as a watchtower or signal station like on Hadrian's Wall. It should be distinguished from a burgus, a Latin term, used in the Germanic provinces. A distribution and settling tank in a Roman aqueduct or it:castellum aquae, it is the source of the English word "castle"
