stirling-1963-vol-1/05_152

Transcription

No. 125 -- ROMAN MONUMENTS -- No. 125

[Diagram Inserted]
The Roman Sacellum of Mars Signifer, or Mars Ultor
Vulgarly call'd
ARTHURS - OON

By courtesy of the Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Fig. 48. Roman temple, Arthur's O'on (No. 126); Gordon's drawings (1726)

(vii) In a recent study of the whole question, Mr. J. M.
Davidson ¹ has argued strongly against the existence of a
branch road from Belstane to Castlecary on the lines
suggested by Roy and Stuart, adducing the negative
results of his own field investigations, and also showing
sound reasons for rejecting the supposed Roman remains
at the Lilly Loch. But his observations led him to believe
that a road had led from Castlecary to Crowbank, 2 miles
to the S., where he suggested there might have been a
Roman signal-post. On reconsideration, however, Mr.
Davidson has agreed that the various metalled surfaces
which he took to be the remains of a Roman road between
Castlecary and Crowbank are all of a more recent date;
while excavation has shown that the short length of stone
kerbing to which he refers, ² on the E. side of Crowbank
farmhouse, is not Roman work but is simply the lowest
course of a former garden wall.
No intensive field-work has been done outside the
confines of Stirlingshire, but it is quite clear from the
foregoing survey that no evidence has yet emerged for the
existence of a Roman road leading from Clydesdale
either to Camelon or to Castlecary. The only point at
which a possible road of this nature has been found is
outside the fort of Castlecary, but neither the "quarry"
road nor the branch road reported there need necessarily
have served anything more than purely local purposes.

1 The Roman Occupation of South-Western Scotland (ed.
Miller, S. N.), 82 ff.
2 Ibid., 87.

-- 117