Antonine Wall

Antonine Wall
At Watling Lodge and Roughcastle.
Visited 25th March 2015. entry free.

Watling Lodge..
Watling Lodge... Address: Falkirk, Lothian, Scotland
Location: In Falkirk, signposted from the A9, accessed from the B816 Tamforhill road. .
Steep steps upto top of embankment from Tamforhill Road.  

There are two sections of the Roman Antonine Wall here, one on either side of the private house known as Watling Lodge. The lodge itself is not open to visitors; the real interest here are the Roman remains in any case! The section to the east is one of the best preserved ditch sections of the wall defenses. At its greatest extent the ditch is 12 metres wide by 4.5 metres deep
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Watling Lodge

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The Antonine Wall is essentially a Scottish equivalent to the more famous Hadrian's Wall far to the south. Unlike Hadrian's Wall, most of the Antonine Wall defences were only turf and ditches, like the section seen here.

The Antonine Wall was granted World Heritage status in 2008, as part of the much larger "Frontiers of the Roman Empire" World Heritage Site.



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The section of wall at Watling Lodge is the only place along the wall (aside from the regularly spaced forts) where a road passes through. The road was defended by a guard tower and double-gates. The road north crossed the Forth and led eventually to Ardoch, in Tayside.

Inserts from http://www.britainexpress.com
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Useful website... Click here

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Roughcastle...
Rough Castle Fort is a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall roughly 2 kilometres south east of Bonnybridge near Tamfourhill in the Falkirk council area, Scotland.
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The Antonine Wall was built around 143 AD and stretched from Bo'ness on the River Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde. The fort is the best preserved of the 19 forts constructed along the length of the Wall. Built against the southern rear face of the Wall, the fort was defended by 6 metre thick turf ramparts and surrounded by defensive ditches.

Gateways were provided through the main Wall to the north, and also through the walls on the other three sides of the fort. Causeways were then constructed across the main Antonine and secondary defensive ditches, affording easy access to and from the fort.



Holes are from wooden stakes which were sunk into them and were pointed at an angle amongst trees at the time as a defence in case of an attack the scots would not of seen them until it was to late.

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The fort was the second smallest on the Wall and had an area of about 4,000 square metres. The fort contained several substantial stone buildings, including a headquarters, the commander's house, barracks, a bath house and a granary. Although the original buildings have not survived, the foundations of these buildings were discovered during excavations in
1902 - 1903, 1932 and 1957 - 1961.
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Insert from Wikipedia Click here
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All pictures taken by myself,  View more here