OS1/21/18/276

Continued entries/extra info

Roman Road continued:-

On entering the upper ward, it descends the left bank of the Potrail, the Daer, and the Clyde, which however may be as a continuation of the same river, till it arrives at the village of Crawford, where a portion of it is well known as Watling Street. Here it crosses the river by the Castle ford, and joins the other branch mentioned above." ("On the ancient camps of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, by George Vere Irving Esqr. F.A.S. Reprinted from the journal of the Archaeological Association).

"From this passage, the road continued its course, in a northerly direction, past a Roman Fort in a remarkable pass, above the Kirk at Durisdeer; from this post, it pushed through the hills by the defile, called the Wall Path; and it went down the west side of Powtrail Water to its confluence with the Daer. The road now continued its course, along the west side of the Daer, till its influx into the Clyde; and equally proceeded along the west side of the Clyde, past Elvanfoot, and Crawford Village; and then crossed the Clyde to Crawford Castle, where it joined the Annandale branch". (Chalmer's Caledonia (Vol. 1, P. 137)).

"Advancing from Tibbers Castle by the road to Clydesdale, we reach the vestiges of a quadrangular Camp, situated in a mountain pass at the distance of a mile beyond the village of Durisdeer. THis has evidently been a post of the Romans, established to protect their western line of communication, which at this place enters what must anciently have been a very wild and rugged district. Its vestiges are by no means very distinct, but the general form of the work can be tolerably well distinguished. From Durisdeer, to the village of Crawford, in Lanarkshire, near to which two Vice united, no traces of any Roman entrenchments have been discovered. Roy expected to find the remains of a camp somewhere aboutthe ruins of Crawford Castle, but was disappointed. It is, however exceedingly probable that the Romans were possessed of a military post near to this junction of the two roads.The name of the rivulet, Camps Water, which here falls into the infant Clyde may perhaps be thought to favour this opinion." (Caledonia Romana P. 236).