Cawdor (Roman fort)

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.[1]

Cawdor Roman Fort is near Inverness.

Discovery

In 1984, the site of a possible Roman fort was identified at Easter Galcantray, south west of Cawdor, by aerial photography.[2]

The site was excavated between 1985 and 1990 and, although no Roman pottery or artefacts were found, several features were identified that seemed supportive of this classification:

Jones (1986a) interpreted the main structural phase within the (Cawdor) site’s history as potential evidence for the presence of a Roman military work. This assumption was based on a number of salient factors. These include: the rectilinear form of the enclosure ditch, with its V-shaped profile; the associated timber gate and corner tower; the presence of possible contemporary rectilinear timber buildings, which appear reminiscent in both size and form to barrack blocks; and finally, the dating evidence.[3] This, based on the one sigma calibrated range, suggests the slighting of the site during the late first century AD, which would correspond to the governorship of Agricola, or possibly his unknown successor.[4]

If confirmed, it would be the most northerly known Roman fort in the British Isles.[5] The possibility that Agricola reached this far north is also suggested by discoveries at Portmahomack[6] and Tarradale on the northern shores of the Beauly Firth,[7] but Romano-British scholars have been reticent in confirming Jones' interpretation of the site.[8]

More research required
Cawdor Roman Fort is near Inverness. It was considered the northernmost place of Roman conquest and presence in Britannia, until the recent discovery of Roman military presence at Tarradale and Portmahomack.

In mid-83 CE Agricola defeated the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. With victory, Agricola extracted hostages from the Caledonian tribes and instructed his fleet to sail around the north coast confirming to the Romans the province of Britannia was an island. Agricola then may have marched his army to the northern coast of Britain,[9] and reached the Inverness area, near the Easter Galcantray (Cawdor) Fort. In 1985, a "small piece of Roman coarse ware" was found with burnt material at the bottom of a ditch at the site[10] but studies of the pottery identified it as medieval.[11]

Radiocarbon tests of material recovered from the site gave possible dates of construction during Agricola's first century campaign,[12] but its interpretation remains problematic because the site was occupied and abandoned quite quickly leaving no other evidence.[13] There has been no academic consensus over two centuries regarding the location for the battle of Mons Graupius. For example, William Roy (1793),[14] Gabriel Jacques Surenne (1823),[15] Archibald Watt[16] and C. Michael Hogan[17] believe it was fought further south on the coast near the Roman camps of Raedykes[18] or Glenmailen.[19] Whereas Vittorio di Martino (author of "Roman Ireland", about a possible Roman expedition to Ireland) believes the Roman victory happened in an area southwest of Cawdor.[20]

See also

Notes
  1. Roman Fort discovery at Cawdor/Easter Galcantray
  2. G.D.B. Jones & I. Keillor, "Easter Galcantray", Discovery & Excavation Scotland 1984 (1984), p. 14: "On south bank of river Nairn, straight cropmark with gap in middle and suggestion of two more sides, truncated by river, at right angles to main mark."
  3. A single radiocarbon date of 1880 +/- 20 BP, obtained from a layer of charcoal in the re-cut western ditch.
  4. R.A. Gregory, "Excavations by the late G.D.B. Jones and C.M. Daniels along the Moray Firth littoral", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 131 (2001), pp. 177-222 , at p.204.
  5. Roman fort near Inverness Archived June 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  6. RCAHMS: Port A'Chaistell
  7. Google Books: Tarradale, a possible roman camp. p. 176
  8. G.S. Maxwell & D.R. Wilson, "Aerial reconnaissance in Roman Britain 1977-84", Britannia Vol. 18 (1987), pp. 1-48, at p. 34: "For the present, it may be noted that, viewed as crop-mark sites, neither [Cawdor nor Thomshill] sits happily in the established morphological categories of standard Roman military installations in North Britain". D.J. Breeze, "Why did the Romans fail to conquer Scotland?", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 118 (1988), pp. 3-22, at p. 8: "the suggested Roman context for the sites at Easter Galcantray [Cawdor] and Thoms Hill - Daniels 1986 and Jones 1986 - fails to convince; most of the evidence from the former site would better sit within a medieval context ..."
  9. Wolfson, Stan (2002). "THE BORESTI : THE CREATION OF A MYTH In the manuscript of Agricola". 38 (2). In finis Borestorum exercitum deducit - He led his army down into the territory of the Boresti" may be emended to: in finis boreos totum exercitum deducit - "He led his entire army down into the northern extremities {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. Jones, G.D.B. & Keillor, I (1985). "Easter Galcantray". Discovery & Excavation Scotland: 27.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. Gregory, R.A. (2001). "Excavations by the late G.D.B. Jones and C.M. Daniels along the Moray Firth littoral". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 131: 177–222. doi:10.9750/PSAS.131.177.222. S2CID 149451305. This sherd of pottery was subsequently dated to 1300±140 AD (Dur87TL-2AS) by thermoluminescence
  12. "Excavations at Cawdor 1986" (PDF). www.her.highland.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  13. Gregory, R.A. (2001). "Excavations by the late G.D.B. Jones and C.M. Daniels along the Moray Firth littoral". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 131: 34. Likewise, the single calibrated radiocarbon date retrieved from the 'demolition deposit' within the ditch, although partially spanning the Flavian period at both one and two sigma standard deviations (cal AD 80–130 (1 sigma): cal AD 80–220 (2 sigma) ), remains problematic. It is not, in itself, conclusive evidence that the site was occupied and abandoned during the late first century AD. Still less is it conclusive evidence that it was occupied and abandoned by the Roman military, particularly since no late first-century Roman pottery was recovered from this feature or from elsewhere on the site.
  14. Roy, William (1793). The Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain.
  15. Surenne, Gabriel Jacques (1823). Correspondence to Sir Walter Scott.
  16. Watt, Archibald. Highways and byways around Kincardineshire. Stonehaven Heritage Soc., Scotland.
  17. Hogan, C. Michael. "Elsick Mounth". The Megalithic Portal.
  18. "Raedykes". www.canmore.rcahms.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  19. "Glenmaillen: Roman Camps of Agricola and Septimius Severus". www.canmore.rcahms.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  20. Di Martino, Vittorio (2006). Roman Ireland. The Collins Press. p. 14.

Bibliography
  • Di Martino, Vittorio (2003). Roman Ireland. Collins Press: London.
  • Jones and Keillar (1986). Excavations at Cawdor. University of Manchester.
  • Hanson, William S. (2003). Edwards, Kevin J. & Ralston, Ian B.M. (ed.). "The Roman Presence: Brief Interludes". Scotland After the Ice Age: Environment, Archaeology and History, 8000 BC - AD 1000. Edinburgh University Press.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  • Hanson, William S. (1980). "Roman campaigns north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus: the evidence of the temporary camps". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 109: 142–145. doi:10.9750/PSAS.109.140.150. S2CID 145027106.
  • Macdonald, G (1916). "The Roman camps at Raedykes and Glenmailen". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 50: 348–359. doi:10.9750/PSAS.050.317.359. S2CID 191748336.
  • Maxwell, G S (1980). "Agricola's campaigns: the evidence of the temporary camps". Scottish Archeological Forum. 12: 34–41.
  • Moffat, Alistair (2005). Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History. Thames & Hudson: London. ISBN 0-500-05133-X.
  • Pitts, L (1985). Inchtuthil. The Roman Legionary Fortress (6 ed.). Britannia Monograph.
  • Robertson, A S (1976). "Agricola's campaigns in Scotland, and their aftermath". Scottish Archeological Forum. 74.
  • St Joseph, J K (1951). "Air reconnaissance of North Britain". The Journal of Roman Studies. 41: 65.
  • Woolliscroft, D & Hoffmann, B (2006). The First Frontier. Rome in the North of Scotland. Tempus: Stroud.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

57.5098°N 3.9868°W / 57.5098; -3.9868

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