Cramond Roman Fort: evidence from excavations at Cramond Kirk Hall, 1998 and 2001

Abstract

Excavation on the site of an extension to Cramond Kirk Hall has provided new evidence for the layout of the defences of the Roman fort, the route of the road immediately beyond it and for the phases of Roman military occupation at Cramond postulated by previous excavators. The features encountered included a broad right-angled ditch, possibly part of the outer defences, turning at this point to run parallel with the road into the fort. Three much slighter parallel ditches or gullies at the south end of the site are tentatively identified as drainage features beside the Roman road which, on this interpretation, would lie just beyond the limit of excavation. At a later date, the ditch had been allowed to silt up and features including pits and a stone box-drain were cut on a different alignment, through the fill of the earlier ditch; a well was also cut across two of the roadside ditches. These later features appear to represent encroachment of extramural settlement on the defences during the Severan occupation, at a time when a large defended annexe had been constructed to the east of the fort.

The Early Medieval Antonine Wall

“…24 Post-Roman barrows reusing Roman masonry have been found over and adjacent to the legionary fortress at Inchtuthil (PER), while early medieval burials have also been discovered within the Clarke 2007;Driscoll 1998b. 23 Forsyth 2009;Maldonado 2011a, 89-97, 152-7;Clarke et al 2012, 181-92;Hunter 2013. 24 Ardoch: Christison et al 1898;Ross 1898;Carriden: Bailey 1997;Cramond: Holmes 2003;Cessford 2001;Masser 2006. THE EARLY MEDIEVAL ANTONINE WALL second-century fortlet of Burnswark (DMF) and the temporary camp of Little Kerse, Polmont (STL) (discussed below).…”

“… 24 Ardoch: Christison et al 1898; Ross 1898; Carriden: Bailey 1997; Cramond: Holmes 2003; Cessford 2001; Masser 2006.…”

The British Expedition of Septimius Severus

“…The Period 5B supply-base at South Shields has insufficient accommodation for the whole unit so this would support the traditional suggestion. 44 For Cramond, see Rae and Rae 1974;Holmes 2003;Masser 2006;Evans 2006; for the annexe defences and gate, see Hunter 2004, 269-70 Carpow was an 11 ha legionary fortress (about half the standard second-century size) on the south bank of the Firth of Tay. The identity of the site as a Severan legionary base was established by R.E.…”

“…Later BB1 at Cramond: Holmes 2003, 58-9; absence at Carpow: Dore and Wilkes 1999, 541. 81 Bidwell and Speak 1994, 29;Hodgson 2001, 35. 82 Evans 2006, 9, quoting Holmes 2003 cf. Masser 2006, 17. For Traprain, see Hunter 2009b.…”

“… 42 For Cramond, see Rae and Rae 1974; Holmes 2003; Masser 2006; Evans 2006; for the annexe defences and gate, see Hunter 2004, 269–70 and fig. 7. …”