Site of Roman Fort on Antonine Wall

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 18 Sep 2009

This spot, near the summit of Golden Hill in Duntocher, was the site of one of the forts of the Antonine Wall. The remains of the fort are not currently exposed, but the grass has been cut in such a way as to show the outlines of the structures that once stood here. The Antonine Wall was (except at its eastern end) a turf rampart built upon a stone base. Only a few metres from the point at which this photo was taken, part of the stone base of the wall is exposed, although protected by railings: Image The fort at Duntocher is discussed in the book "A Guide to the Roman Remains in Britain" (Roger J.A.Wilson, 1980): "... a gate here leads to Golden Hill and a railed-off portion of Wall-base .... Excavations on top of the hill in 1948-51 revealed that an Antonine fortlet preceded a very small fort here .... The fortlet had been demolished and replaced by the fort even before the actual Wall was built in this sector, and it may be presumed that the latter was built from east to west. The same conclusion was reached when the terminal fort at Old Kilpatrick, now built over, was excavated in 1923-4 and 1931". The fort encloses only 0.2 hectares, making it the smallest of the known forts on the Wall. According to the World Heritage Site Nomination Document for the Antonine Wall (written by Prof. David Breeze), the original plan had been for just six forts (these are now called primary forts) along the line of the Wall, but it was later decided to add secondary forts (of which Golden Hill is one) to reduce the average distance between forts to about 3.6 km. When the Nomination Document was published (in 2007), the remains of sixteen forts survived, as well as nine fortlets, along with some smaller enclosures and "expansions" (whose function is currently unclear). The bid was successful: the Antonine Wall is now listed as a World Heritage Site. Situated centrally in the background is a flagstaff that stands at the summit of Golden Hill, which is located within Goldenhill Park.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0