The Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius ordered the construction of the Antonine Wall across the narrowest part of mainland Scotland in 142 AD.
Until it was abandoned in the 160s this was the north west
frontier of the Roman Empire.
It stretched 60 km from Bo'ness on the Forth to Old Kilpatrick
on the Clyde. Some 3-4m high, it consisted of turf ramparts
over a base of stone blocks with a wide ditch and glacis (or low
mound) to the north. A military road ran along the south side,
linking forts which were built every 3 km or so. Soldiers of the
2nd, 6th and 20th legions, stationed in Britain, built the wall
leaving carved stone slabs to mark the stretches they had
completed. Most of those from the western section of the Wall
are now part of the collections of the Hunterian Museum, University of
Glasgow, which also houses extensive research material.
A Roman base at Old Kilpatrick may have been established some
years before the wall itself, and may have been used to support
Roman seaborne activity before being incorporated into the Wall's
defences. It was a rectangular site about 135 x 124m,
defended by a rampart wall and ditches. A bath house and
further structure were discovered in 1790 during the construction
of the Forth-Clyde Canal. The whole site was excavated in 1923-4
but has subsequently been covered over by building development,
most recently a bus station, now disused.
Also at Old Kilpatrick and Bowling (Back to
listing)