The Gask Ridge is the modern name given to an early series of fortifications, built by the Romans in Scotland, close to the Highland Line. Modern excavation and interpretation has been pioneered by the Roman Gask Project, with Birgitta Hoffmann and David Woolliscroft. The ridge fortifications: forts, fortlets and watchtowers were only in operation for a few years, probably fewer than ten. [3]
The name "Gask Ridge" refers to the 10-mile (16 km) ridge of land to the north of the River Earn in Perthshire. [4] In Scottish Gaelic, a gasg is a projecting tail or strip of land. [5] In the early 20th century, a line of Roman signal-towers (or watch-towers) was discovered along this ridge between the Roman forts of Strageath and Bertha. [6]
The Gask Ridge system was constructed sometime between 70 and 80 AD. [7] Construction on Hadrian's Wall was started 42 years after completion of the Gask Ridge (from 122 to 130 AD), and the Antonine Wall was started 12 years after completion of Hadrian's Wall (from 142 to 144 AD). Although the Gask Ridge was not a wall, it may be Rome's earliest fortified land frontier. [8] The fortifications approximately follow the boundary between Scotland's fertile Lowlands and mountainous Highlands, in Perth and Kinross and Angus. The later Hadrian's Wall and Antonine Wall were further south and considerably shorter.
The principal forts of the Gask Ridge frontier system were (from south to north): [9] Camelon, Drumquhassle, Malling, Doune, Glenbank (fortlet), Bochastle, Ardoch, Kaims Castle (fortlet), Strageath, Dalginross, Bertha, Fendoch, Cargill (fort and fortlet), Inchtuthil (Legionary fortress), Cardean, Inverquharity (fortlet) and Stracathro.
The forts of Drumquhassle, Menteith/Malling, Bochastle, Doune, Dalginross and Fendoch in the south-west were collectively referred to as glenblocker forts in the older literature; they are also called the Highland line forts. [10] Glenblocker describes their location at the exit of some of the glens.
All of the forts were originally built during the Flavian occupation in Scotland. A broader group consists of
Cardean, Stracathro and Doune are sited further away from their respective traffic corridors, although fulfilling the same function.
It has traditionally been thought that these forts were meant to prevent invasions out of the Scottish Highlands into Roman-held territory. [11] This may have been the intention, in cooperation with the other forts on the Gask Ridge and along Strathmore, as only the legionary fortress of Inchtuthil with 5,000–6,000 soldiers would have been strong enough to deal with a major incursion. The smaller forts were more likely to serve as a disincentive to small-scale raiding parties. [12]
The relationship between the Glenblocker forts and the Gask Ridge has in the past been seen as a staged withdrawal. [13] Recent research suggests that the three elements are part of the same frontier system, stretching roughly from Loch Lomond to Montrose. In this hypothesis, the Glenblocker forts controlled access to valleys in the frontier area, which loop back into the frontier, rather than link with the Iron Age settlements further north. Their value as a block to invasion is doubtful, as their situation would have allowed supervision but they lacked the manpower to deter anything but cattle rustling.
Only the legionary fortress at Inchtuthil, conveniently situated for access into Braemar and its hinterland, is large enough to have functioned as a defensive fortification or a jumping-off point for an invasion. The Gask Road and the towers alongside it in this hypothesis guarded the strategically important link to the harbours at the Firths of Tay and Forth and the southern part of the province. [14]
Tacitus writes in De vita Iulii Agricolae that Agricola was fighting in the area in around 80 AD; the latest coinage dates from 86 AD. This would suggest that the forts were occupied for six years at most. Recent archaeology has shown that many of the forts on the Gask Ridge were rebuilt, sometimes twice, without evidence of destruction through warfare. Further digs may cast some light on this apparent contradiction.
The forts of Ardoch, Strageath and Bertha on the Gask Road, as well as the forts of Cargill in Strathmore and the glenblocker fort of Dalginross have also produced Antonine material attesting to a reuse of the sites contemporary with the Antonine Wall. [15] In the Severan period the army passed through the area, and several camps across Scotland are dated to this period (for example, Kair House in Aberdeenshire and the fort at Carpow Roman Fort which is on the Firth of Tay. [16]
The permanent sites are complemented by a series of large marching camps (large camps date to the 3rd century) from the Scottish Lowlands into Aberdeenshire and Moray. The Roman legions in the 1st century established a chain of forts at Ardoch, Strageath, Inchtuthil, Battledykes (which is unlikely to date from the same period as the Gask sites), Stracathro and Raedykes, taking the Elsick Mounth on the way to Normandykes, before going north to Glenmaillen and Auchinhove. Unconfirmed sites of possible Roman forts have also been found at Bellie, Balnageith and Cawdor.
In the 1990s researchers discovered new possible Roman fortifications north of Inverness and the Moray Firth. The most important are Tarradale and Portmahomack. These are being studied by Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland to verify that they are Roman. [17] Several chronological reconstructions of their role have been made.
In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word castrum was a military-related term.
Inchtuthil is the site of a Roman legionary fortress situated on a natural platform overlooking the north bank of the River Tay southwest of Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
Ardoch Roman Fort is an archaeological site just outside the village of Braco in Perthshire, Scotland, about seven miles south of Crieff.
Kilmahog is a hamlet situated half a mile to the west of Callander, Scotland.
Raedykes is the site of a Roman marching camp located just over three miles northwest of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. National Grid Reference NO 842902. It is designated as a scheduled monument. A marching camp was a temporary camp used mainly for overnight stops on a long route between more permanent forts, or as a temporary base while on campaign in hostile territory.
Roman military borders and fortifications were part of a grand strategy of territorial defense in the Roman Empire, although this is a matter of debate. By the early 2nd century, the Roman Empire had reached the peak of its territorial expansion and rather than constantly expanding their borders as earlier in the Empire and Republic, the Romans solidified their position by fortifying their strategic position with a series of fortifications and established lines of defense. Historian Adrian Goldsworthy argues that the Romans had reached the natural limits which their military traditions afforded them conquest over and that beyond the borders of the early-to-mid Empire lay peoples whose military traditions made them militarily unconquerable, despite many Roman battle victories. In particular, Goldsworthy argues that the cavalry-based warfare of the Parthians, Sarmatians and Persians presented a major challenge to the expansion of Rome's infantry-based armies.
Ythan Wells, also known as Glenmailen, is the site of a Roman military camp, near the farm of Glenmellan, 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi) east of the village of Ythanwells in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The site is a designated scheduled monument.
Scotland during the Roman Empire refers to the protohistorical period during which the Roman Empire interacted within the area of modern Scotland. Despite sporadic attempts at conquest and government between the first and fourth centuries AD, most of modern Scotland, inhabited by the Caledonians and the Maeatae, was not incorporated into the Roman Empire with Roman control over the area fluctuating.
The Antonine Wall was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south, and intended to supersede it, while it was garrisoned it was the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire. It spanned approximately 63 kilometres and was about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide. Lidar scans have been carried out to establish the length of the wall and the Roman distance units used. Security was bolstered by a deep ditch on the northern side. It is thought that there was a wooden palisade on top of the turf. The barrier was the second of two "great walls" created by the Romans in Great Britain in the second century AD. Its ruins are less evident than those of the better-known and longer Hadrian's Wall to the south, primarily because the turf and wood wall has largely weathered away, unlike its stone-built southern predecessor.
Inverquharity is a Roman fortlet in Scotland, close to the Highland Line about 5 miles (8 km) north of Kirriemuir, Angus.
Cawdor (Roman Fort), located near the small village of Easter Galcantray (15 miles or 24 kilometres east of Inverness), is suspected of being one of the northernmost Roman forts in Great Britain, though this is controversial.
Muiryfold was one of the Roman fortifications built by Septimius Severus in northern Caledonia. The site is located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) east of Keith in Moray.
The architecture of Scotland in the Roman era includes all building within the modern borders of Scotland, from the arrival of the Romans in northern Britain in the first century BCE, until their departure in the fifth century CE. Ptolemy indicated that there were 19 "towns" in Caledonia, north of the Roman province of Britannia, but no clear evidence of urban settlements has been found and these were probably hillforts. There is evidence of over 1,000 such forts, most south of the Clyde-Forth line, but the majority seem to have been abandoned in the Roman period. There is also evidence of distinctive stone wheelhouses and small underground souterrains.
The Hadrianic Society was a British historical society focused upon Hadrian's Wall and Roman Britain as well as the Antonine Wall, the Gask Ridge, and other Roman Frontier systems. It was founded in 1971 under the leadership of Brian Dobson, David Breeze, and Valerie Maxfield. The Hadrianic Society closed in 2018. Some of its functions continue to be fulfilled by the Roman Army School.
David John Breeze, OBE, FSA, FRSE, HonFSAScot, Hon MIFA is a British archaeologist, teacher and scholar of Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall and the Roman army. He studied under Eric Birley and is a member of the so-called "Durham School" of archaeology. He was a close friend and colleague of the late Dr Brian Dobson.
Birgitta Hoffmann is an archaeologist and adult education teacher. Her research covers the Roman military, especially the Roman frontiers and ancient glass and beads of the first millennium AD.
Burnswark Hill, to the east of the A74(M) between Ecclefechan and Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, is a prominent flat-topped hill, composed of basalt deposited some 300 million years ago as a local flow of lava. On this hill have been found an Iron Age hillfort enclosing some 7 hectares, Iron Age round houses within the fort, an earlier Bronze Age burial cairn, enclosures dated to the medieval period, a possible Civil War battery, and an Ordnance Survey triangulation station. Immediately adjacent to the base of the hill are two Roman camps, north and south of the fort, and a possible Roman fortlet within the South Camp.
Mumrills was the site of the largest Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in Scotland. It is possible that Mumrills could exchange signals with Flavian Gask Ridge forts. Some believe Mumrills may have been the site of Wallace's defeat at the Battle of Falkirk. The farm at Mumrills was also used as an early site for the Falkirk Relief Church.
Drumquhassle was a Roman fort associated with the Gask Ridge in Scotland. It was found from aerial photography in the late 1970s. The name selected for the fort deliberately made it hard for English born readers to pronounce. The fort was from the Flavian period; it was built and briefly occupied by during the administration of Sallustius Lucullus. It is known as a "Glen-blocker" fort and is located within sight of Loch Lomond.
Glenbank was the site of a Roman fortlet associated with the Gask Ridge in Scotland. It was discovered from aerial photography by G. S. Maxwell in 1983. It was confirmed by geophysics and excavations which were carried out in 1984 and 1999. It is beside the Roman road that linked the forts at Ardoch and Doune. It is currently the most southerly of the known Gask fortifications. It was probably built around 70-80 AD. Several other Gask installations have been identified running north to Bertha.
