stirling-1963-vol-1/05_130

Transcription

No. 111 -- ROMAN MONUMENTS -- No. 111
wards for a distance of 100 ft. Hereabouts the road
evidently cut directly across the base of the salient
formed by the Wall, since the newly discovered portion
lies no less than 280 ft. SW. of the Rampart - the
measurement being taken along the fence that borders
the W. side of the railway. The road is 24 ft. in width at
this point, and has a well-cambered surface, now largely
bare of vegetation, consisting of rammed cobbles
averaging about 5 in. in diameter: at the W. end the
heavy bottoming is exposed in a few places where the

'EXPANSIONS' ON THE ANTONINE WALL
[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 31

metalling has been eroded away. To the W. of Rough
Castle the Military Way is also visible between the
Rowan Tree Burn and Woodside Cottage in the form of
a low, turf-covered mound, 18 ft. wide, which exhibits
occasional loose stones on the surface. It lies more or less
parallel to the Rampart and 30 - 40 yds. behind it (i.e. to
the N. of the line tentatively assigned to it by Macdonald
in R.W.S., pl. xix), and is last seen, as a small patch of
cobbling, at the SW. corner of the garden in front of
Woodside Cottage. From here to Bonnyside House the
Roman road is overlaid initially by a dyke and then by
the modern road, but an interesting feature of this sector
is the presence of a number of quarry-pits situated
immediately behind the Rampart. Three of these pits,
from which the gravel used as a top-dressing for the
Military Way was obtained, occur in the vicinity of
the Bonnyside East expansion referred to below, while
another group of somewhat larger pits, measuring up to
20 ft. across, straddles the E. boundary of the policies
of Bonnyside House. Between the two main groups,
small isolated patches of rushes no doubt indicate the
existence of similar pits which have completely
silted up.
A further notable feature of this sector is the occurrence
of four turf platforms, or "expansions" as they are usually
termed, projecting at irregular intervals from the S. face
of the Rampart (Fig. 31). Three of these expansions -
Tentfield East (855798), ¹ Bonnyside East (838798) ² and
Bonnyside West (834798) appear as roughly semicircular
on plan at the present time and measure about 35 ft.
from E. to W. at the Rampart face by some 20 ft. from
N. to S. The fourth expansion, Tentfield West, which lies
40 yds. E. of the mineral railway line ³ (850799), is barely
discernible today, but would seem to be identical with
the "Gilmor-seat castellum or watch-tower" mentioned
by Roy, and represented in one of his plans as a small
square earthwork abutting on the S. face of the Rampart
and measuring about 18 ft.each way. ⁴
Excavation by the Commission of Bonnyside East
expansion in 1957, ⁵ and cuttings made at the end of last
century through the only other known expansions on
the Wall, ⁶ have shown that these structures were built
simultaneously with, or very shortly after, the Rampart,
and that they were all similar in size to Tentfield West
and had the same square ground-plan, the present semi-
circular appearance of the surviving examples being
simply due to the collapse of the weathered turfwork.
At Bonnyside East the turf platform was supported round
the edges by a stone foundation, and, allowing for the
sloping sides that would be needed to give the structure
stability, it was calculated that the top would have
measured approximately 19 ft. from N. to S. by 10 ft.
transversely at a height of 10 ft. above the ground -
the estimated height of the Rampart (Fig. 32). Considera-
tions of siting and the discovery of burnt deposits of
wood, turfwork and Roman pottery in the immediate
vicinity of Bonnyside East indicate that these expansions
were stances for beacons which formed elements in a
long-range emergency warning-system, the eastern group
linking the Wall with the forward area, particularly the
region of the Stirling gap, and the western group on Croy
Hill communicating with the garrisons of Clydesdale to
the rear.
(iv) Rampart, Ditch and Outer Mound are all very
distinct for a distance of a quarter of a mile in Seabegs
Wood (815793 - 811792), the Rampart standing to a
height of 4 ft. in some places. The Ditch is again about
40 ft. in width throughout, but is waterlogged and choked
with moss and rushes. The Military Way is also visible
in this sector at a distance of 50-150 ft. S. of the Rampart.
It appears as a cambered mound, now turf-covered,
16-18 ft. in width and not more than 18 in. in height.
Traces of the heavy stone bottoming can be seen in situ

1 R.W.S., 128 and pl. lix, 2.
2 Ibid., 130 and pl. lix, 1.
3 Not "100 yards" as is stated in R.W.S., 352.
4 Military Antiquities, 163 and pl. xxxv.
5 P.S.A.S., xc (1956-7), 161 ff.
6 I.e. the pair on the western end of Croy Hill (A.W.R.,
section 11, 77-9; section 12A, 84-5). Superficial appearances
do not support the suggestion (A.W.R., 107) that there may
have been another expansion about 140 yds. E. of Bonnyside
West.

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