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Castle Greg roman fortlet - Panorama
Castle Greg is the archaeological remains of a Roman fortlet near Camilty Plantation, approximately three miles south-east of West Calder, West Lothian, in Scotland.
The visitor here will notice the perhaps surprisingly remote location of the fort, which also has practically no long-distance views available to it. One possible explanation of this is that it formed a staging post along a main East-West artery, between the kingdoms of Gododdin (Lothian) and Strathclyde. Certainly, today it lies just to the North of the "Lang Whang", or A70, which performs just such a function.
A round hollow near the centre of the fortlet, locally called the Well, but supposed to have been the foundation of a flagstaff, was excavated about 1830, when under a large stone was found a considerable number of Roman coins, including denarii of Vespasian, Domitian, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, indicating a date of about 170 AD.
This Roman fortlet is rectangular in plan, with rounded corners, measuring internally between crests 180ft by 152ft. It is surrounded by a well-defined rampart, best preserved at the S end where it is 28ft wide, rising 4ft above the interior, and 7ft above the ditch immediately in front: 7ft away is a second ditch, both ditches being 8 ft wide and 2 1/2 ft deep. They surround the fortlet except in the centre of the E side, where there is a 22ft wide causeway, leading to a 9ft gap in the rampart. Some 28ft N of this entrance is an oval hollow, possibly the site of a hut. Near the centre of the fort is a circular hollow, 12ft in diameter, which contained a well.
No signs of internal habitation, or of a tutulus, were found. The track of a road could also be made out, running from the entrance in the E, curving NE for some 40.0m, after which it disappeared.
The visitor here will notice the perhaps surprisingly remote location of the fort, which also has practically no long-distance views available to it. One possible explanation of this is that it formed a staging post along a main East-West artery, between the kingdoms of Gododdin (Lothian) and Strathclyde. Certainly, today it lies just to the North of the "Lang Whang", or A70, which performs just such a function.
A round hollow near the centre of the fortlet, locally called the Well, but supposed to have been the foundation of a flagstaff, was excavated about 1830, when under a large stone was found a considerable number of Roman coins, including denarii of Vespasian, Domitian, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, indicating a date of about 170 AD.
This Roman fortlet is rectangular in plan, with rounded corners, measuring internally between crests 180ft by 152ft. It is surrounded by a well-defined rampart, best preserved at the S end where it is 28ft wide, rising 4ft above the interior, and 7ft above the ditch immediately in front: 7ft away is a second ditch, both ditches being 8 ft wide and 2 1/2 ft deep. They surround the fortlet except in the centre of the E side, where there is a 22ft wide causeway, leading to a 9ft gap in the rampart. Some 28ft N of this entrance is an oval hollow, possibly the site of a hut. Near the centre of the fort is a circular hollow, 12ft in diameter, which contained a well.
No signs of internal habitation, or of a tutulus, were found. The track of a road could also be made out, running from the entrance in the E, curving NE for some 40.0m, after which it disappeared.
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