stirling-1963-vol-1/05_148

Transcription

No. 124 -- ROMAN MONUMENTS -- No. 124
and Dunipace parishes ¹; but by 1858, when the
Ordnance surveyors arrived, destruction was already
complete. The surveyors did their best to reconstruct
the course of the road from the reports of local informants,
but their results were not entirely convincing, and a
considerable part of the line which was shown on former
editions of the 6-inch map has therefore been omitted
from the present edition. It will therefore be well to
discuss the whole subject afresh in the light of the data
forthcoming from topography, archaeology and records.
Nimmo saw the road "quite entire -- upon the south
of Torwoodhead, and in the muir of Plean; the grounds
in those parts, having never been cultivated, have
preserved its form, except in marshy places, where it
hath sunk by its own weight -- its uniform breadth,
straight course, and gradual descent upon each side
cannot but strike the eye of the observer". ² As to the
method of construction, he says that "great pains have
been taken to render it firm and durable -- It consists
of several layers of stone and earth, which seem to have
been thrown upon one another, just as they came to hand;
for the stones are of all dimensions. It is generally about
twelve feet in breadth, and its foundations are so deep,
that, in the formation of it, they seem first to have digged
a ditch, which they filled up again with stones and earth,
in the careless manner that hath been mentioned, till
they had raised it at least a foot above the natural surface.
It always rises in the middle, and slopes towards the
edges; and, on each side, especially where the ground is
wet, there hath been a small ditch or drain, to keep the
work dry -- The stones of the uppermost layer are
generally of so large a size, that, unless it was always well
covered with gravel, it must have been very incommodious
for travelling upon -- Its direction is as straight as the
nature of the ground through which it passes will
admit --" ³ On the evidence of the remains in Tor Wood,
discussed below, it seems clear that Nimmo under-
estimated the width of the Roman road by some 6 ft.,
and that he did not fully understand the nature of its
construction. Instead of being formed in a haphazard
manner of layers of stones and earth, there can be little
doubt that the road was carefully built in normal Roman
fashion, a solid bottoming of large stones being surfaced
with smaller stones and gravel.
In reconstructing the line of the road one meets with
a first difficulty at Camelon itself. From Watling Lodge,
where the passage through the Antonine Wall was
guarded by a small fortified post (No. 114), Roy ⁴ and
the O.S. maps agree in marking the road as running in
a more or less direct line to Camelon, half a mile to the N.
On Roy's Plate XXIX the road is shown as issuing from
the N. gate of the Antonine fort at Camelon, but there-
after its course is uncertain. Nimmo's account ⁵ states that
"From Camelon to the river, scarce any vestige of it is
to be discerned, the fields have been in tillage from
time immemorial", and the O.S. map has now abandoned
its former line for the road in this sector and also the
"Roman Bridge (site of)" which used to be placed at
852821. No remains of a road have in fact been found by
excavation or probing immediately N. of the river at
this point, ⁶ and the stones found by Carron Company's
workmen in 1773, if they really were bridge-foundations
and of Roman origin, ⁷ are more likely to have been a
quarter of a mile downstream (856820), where the con-
struction of the Company's weir (cf. p. 439) would have
necessitated excavation in the river-bed. The appearance
of the channel immediately upstream from the weir must
have been considerably altered by the backing-up of
the water, and in consequence Nimmo's "precipice",
artificially sloped bank, and cut rock-surface ⁸ cannot
now be identified; but a crossing at or near the weir
would agree well enough with his next piece of informa-
tion, which is that "After the road hath got free of the
river, it appears again upon a rising ground, a little
westward of the church of Larbert". ⁹ Edgar's map is on
too small a scale, and is too inaccurate in its basic
topography, to throw any light on this point.
Nimmo's next landmark is Torwood Castle (No. 299),
which he terms "Torwoodhead", ¹⁰ and from here the
road can still be traced intermittently for about a mile
in Tor Wood. ¹¹ The road enters the wood 240 yds. ESE.
of the Castle (83818427), and runs thence north-
westwards in a straight line for about 700 yds. to
83348465, where it makes a slight change of direction
towards the N. Initially its passage through the wood is
marked only by patches of disturbed metalling, but the
heavy bottoming can be seen in situ in the corner of
the wood to the NE. of the Castle (83648440) and also
between the dyke and the track immediately to the S. of
a newly constructed reservoir. Beyond the reservoir the
road reappears in the form of a low mound, 25 ft. wide,
which can be followed through the wood for 170 yds.
to a point where it has been destroyed by surface
quarrying and by relatively recent enclosures. The
mound is traceable again on the new alinement for a
short distance at the head of a drained moss, now bare of
trees, and on the slope beyond a dense cluster of birch
saplings which fringe the N. side of the moss it is fairly
distinct for a further 150 yds. to 83068500. Another slight
change of direction seems to have taken place at
83008506, following which the road runs parallel to,
and 40 yds. E. of, the dyke bordering the W. side of the

1 Stat. Acct., iii (1792), 336.
2 Op. cit., 24.
3 Op. cit., 25 f.
4 Military Antiquities, Plates XXIX and XXXV. Plate XXXV
was surveyed in 1755, but the inclusion in it of Carron Iron
Works shows that the survey must have been brought up
to date after 1760. As, however, the Carron mill-lade and
reservoir are not included this revision probably took place
before 1773.
5 Op. cit., 22.
6 Information from Miss D. M. Hunter, Larbert.
7 Nimmo, op. cit., 22.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid. The church of Nimmo's time stood about 200 ft. W.
of the W. end of the existing structure (No. 146).
10 Op. cit., 23. The name "Torwoodhead" misled Crawford,
who took it as applying to the modern house of that name at
843842 (Topography of Roman Scotland, 17).
11 The Commissioners are indebted to Mr. A. Clarke of the
Archaeology Division of the Ordnance Survey for unpublished
information about the precise course of the road in Tor Wood.

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