Gask Ridge

Gask Ridge chain of castles and route of the Military Road (85 AD)

Highlands and Lowlands in Scotland

Gask Ridge is the collective name for a series of fortifications built by the Romans in what is now central Scotland . The so-called Gask Ridge System ran along a ridge of the Lowlands and, together with the "Glen Blocker" forts, formed the northernmost boundary line drawn by the Roman army .

It is a linear observation and communication system that allowed the Romans to take control of east-central Scotland. The first forts and watchtowers were built during the tenure of the governor Agricola . While the current research consensus is that the entire Gask Ridge System dates back to the first century AD, this cannot yet be considered beyond doubt. Their crews should be incursions by Caledonian tribesprevent and help to monitor border traffic. Most of their fortifications were only occupied by Roman soldiers for a very short period of time, but some of them may have been reused in the 2nd and perhaps also in the 3rd century. It is also unclear whether the largest military base in this region, the legionary fortress of Inchtuthil, was still occupied at the time this border was established. The creation of chains of watchtowers along a road such as Gask Ridge or along a river bank such as B. were lined up on the Danube , culminated later in the emergence of fixed borders such as Hadrian's and Antonine Wall and similar border protection systems on the European continent and in North Africa. The Gask-Ridge-Limes is also of particular importance to research because it illustrates how one of the earliest Roman Limites developed and changed over time.

location

The Gask Ridge Limes is on the edge of the highlands in central Scotland. The boundary line was established between the coast of the Firth of Forth and the River Tay. Part of the chain of fortifications ran along the east-west "Gask Ridge" ( Gasg = mountain ridge or hill country), an approximately 70 meter high ridge north of the river Earn, oriented from east to west . It lies between the highland massif and the Fife peninsula, a stretch of coast with large areas of agricultural land that extends as far as the Moray Firth . It has an excellent view north towards Glenalmond and the Strathearn Plain. The entire border zone essentially extended over the former Scottish counties of Perthshire , Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire , now the region of Tayside , which is from Loch Lomond to the River North Esk and ended in Stracathro in Angus. It marked (in connection with a military road) the transition line (Highland boundary) from the fertile Lowlands to the Highlands , the mountainous regions around what is now Perth , Kinross and Angus .

development

The Caledonia campaigns of Agricola, 78-84

After the Roman emperor Claudius had conquered the whole of south-west England in AD 43 and incorporated it into the Roman Empire, further expansion to the north was only a matter of time. With the appointment of Gnaeus Iulius Agricolas as governor of the province of Britain by Emperor Vespasian in 77/78 AD after the successful pacification of the Welsh tribes and the brigands , the conquest of the rest of the island should now be tackled in northern England. Around 80 AD he invaded what is now Scotland and first moved along the east coast to the River Tay . Fortresses were built at a strategically important location (Newstead, Elginhaugh) between Tyne and Forth. Also Tacitus confirmed in his work De vita Iulii Agricolae that the army of his father Agricola to 80 n. Chr operated. In this region. In the vita it says:

“The fourth summer he [Agricola] spent keeping what he had rushed through, and if the valor of the armies and the glory of the Roman name had permitted it, Britain itself might have found a limit to our conquests. The Clota ( Firth of Clyde ) and Bodotria ( Firth of Forth ) , estuaries that run a tremendous distance through the tides of opposite seas, are only separated by a narrow strip of land. Since this was then fortified with forts and everything closer to the bays was occupied, the enemies were pushed to another island, as it were. "

- Tacitus : Agricola 23

In the following two years, Agricola built a few forts between the Forth-Clyde Valley and the Tay to secure its hinterland, some of which were later integrated into the Antonine Wall. At the same time he broke the resistance of the southern Scottish tribes. In 83 AD he prepared for a campaign against a coalition of the northern Scottish tribes under Calgacus . Agricola advanced even further until 84 AD - to what is now Aberdeenshire - and is said to have fought the legendary battle of Mons Graupius there. In this context, Tacitus writes about a crushing defeat of the native Caledonians , which allegedly cost them over 10,000 dead. The exact location of the battlefield has not been recorded; it was probably near Aberdeen or even further north. Despite his overwhelming victory, Agricola withdrew to the southern foothills of the Highlands and was soon recalled to Rome.

Already during Agricola's campaigns and especially after his retreat, under the new governor Sallustius Lucullus about 20 km north of the Forth - Clyde - Isthmus a dense security and surveillance network of military bases was formed, since the inhospitable and difficult to access highlands soon became the center of continued resistance against the Romans. After their catastrophic defeat, the Caledonians avoided open combat and chose guerrilla tactics from the security of their tribal area in order to be able to continue to attack the invaders. In order to counteract this new threat and, above all, to secure the agriculturally useful land, which is important for their supplies, the Roman army began to build forts and watchtowers on the Gask Ridge. In addition to the legionary camp Inchtuthil or the northernmost known Roman military camp Stracathro , this new chain of fortifications formed another important element for the long-term protection of their occupation . The most recent Roman coins found there date from AD 86, which could mean that the forts and watchtowers were only occupied for six years. The establishment of the Gask-Ridge boundary at this time is considered the most plausible. The parallels to the wooden towers mostly date back to the 1st century, and the surveillance system would not make strategic sense in the context of the campaigns of Emperor Septimius Severus . An occupation during the Antonine rule may also be a possibility, but it seems unlikely given the existence of the Antonine Wall in the south. Securing Gask Ridge could be linked to one of four events:

• the halt of the army at the Forth / Clyde isthmus in Agricola's fourth campaign;
• the consolidation of the conquered territory until the end of his sixth campaign;
• the construction of the legionary camp Inchtuthil and the associated auxiliary troop fort in Perthshire and Angus by Agricola at the end of his campaigns or by his successor;
• the withdrawal from Scotland at the end of the 80s of the 1st century AD

The fort crews of the Gask Ridge operated in the field with the Legio XX Valeria Victrix , which was stationed in Inchtuthil. In 86 AD the Legio II Adiutrix was transferred to Dacia . From then on there were only three legions in Britain. After uprisings in the Pennines and Wales, the Legio XX had to be withdrawn to Chester (Deva Victrix) in 87 AD in order to strengthen the garrisons in the always troubled Wales . With her, a large part of the auxiliary troops marched south. It was no longer possible to maintain the occupation of north-east Scotland. If the Roman occupation had lasted longer, the construction of new fortifications to the north would probably have continued until the Romans had completely cordoned off all land routes into the highlands. The Roman strategy in northern Scotland likely resembled the operations previously carried out further south. Contain the threat of military encirclement and then take control of the food supply. Had this been fully implemented, the subjugation of the Lowlands would have been successful in the long term. The critical development in Central Europe had priority, the Glen Blockers were given up one after the other and the garrisons remaining in Scotland were concentrated along a defensive line in the south of Tayside. The forts at Ardoch and Strageath were both occupied by secondary (or perhaps tertiary) occupations at this time, with a new small fort built in Kaims in between. Research is still controversial as to whether the establishment of the Gask-Ridge-Limes was just a last-ditch attempt to maintain some degree of control over the region. The Gask Ridge fortresses were also given up no later than 90 AD. Layers of fire from this time suggest that the camps were destroyed by their own crews. Finally, Emperor Hadrian realized that the empire could no longer expand indefinitely. The Roman army therefore gradually began to withdraw to the isthmus between Solway Firth and Tyne ( Stanegate ), where they finally built Hadrian's Wall as a fixed border from 122 AD .

Recent archaeological digs have shown that some of the Gask Ridge fortifications had been rebuilt or renewed several times with no evidence of war damage. In the forts of Ardoch, Strageath and Bertha on the military road as well as in those of Cargil, Strathmore and Dalginross, finds from the Antonine period came to light. This indicates a re-use from the middle of the 2nd century, which probably coincided with the short-term shifting of the northern border to the Antonine Wall . After 138 AD, the Roman army reoccupied southeast Scotland as far as the isthmus between Clyde and Forth and built a barricade from coast to coast. In addition, camps from the time of Agricola's campaigns were reactivated. At the same time, some of the Gask Ridge fortifications were occupied. In the northern sector of the Wallzone, new outposts were set up along the military road. The fortresses of Camelon, Ardoch, Strageath and Bertha were restored, probably also those of Dalginross and Cargill, only the watchtower chain was not reopened. It is also possible that the aforementioned forts were only built during this period. Despite all these efforts, the Roman presence was short-lived this time too. In 163 AD the army gave up all bases and withdrew again behind Hadrian's Wall .

During the Severian rule , a Roman army passed through this area again, this time to subdue the Picts . The Roman army advanced far north of the island to the coast of the Moray Firth between 209 and 210 . The Antonine Wall was also occupied again for a short time. A large part of the troops were concentrated in the region around the Carpow legionary camp , which was on the Firth of Tay , near present-day Perth . Despite enormous logistical efforts and great losses, only a fragile peace could be negotiated with the Pict tribes in the end, which did not offer a lasting solution. The archaeological findings along the Gask Ridge show that many of the old castles were reoccupied during the time the Roman army was operating in the north. Across Scotland there is evidence of a number of military camps that were not established until this period, such as those at Kair House in Aberdeenshire and Carpow.

Military infrastructure

Area of ​​the Inchtuthill legionary camp

Sketch of the Ardoch Castle from 1732

Remains of the ramparts and moats of the Ardoch Castle

Kirkhill tower site

Goods route on the route of the former Roman military road

Findings sketch of the small fort at Glenbank

Model of a watchtower on the Gask Ridge
Hagen-Miniatures , 2014
Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

At the Gask Ridge, researchers can study an early version of a Roman Limes. The main feature of such a border security system are forts, which are arranged along a well-developed road, the gaps in between are filled by small forts and watch or signal towers. The Gask Ridge Line was probably Rome's first Limes, which was secured with such a high material expenditure. Unlike Hadrian's Wall and Antonine Wall , it was not designed as a continuous barrier. The core of the border defense systems was lined up over a length of 37 kilometers along the eponymous ridge and comprised 24 locations, starting with the small fort at Glenbank near Dunblane via Fort Strageath to Fort Bertha north of Perth on the River Tay . New investigations of the "Roman Gask Ridge Project" suggest a northern extension of the border line upstream of the Isla to Stracathro and possibly also south over Glenbank to Doune or even to Camelon and Falkirk (forts on Antoninuswall) on the Firth of Forth.

The individual systems were each in visual contact with the immediately adjacent fortifications, the majority of which were between 0.8 and 1.5 kilometers apart. This enabled almost complete control of the topographical transition from the low to the highlands along the Roman military road. The position of the small fort Glenbank between the cohort forts of Doune and Ardoch and the small fort Kaims between Ardoch and Strageath suggests an alternating arrangement of cohort and small forts, which were lined up along the military road and additionally interspersed with a large number of watchtowers. Attempts to establish a regular distance interval (based on the Roman mile) were not convincing, but given the irregular distances of the towers on the Wetterau Limes in Germania, that does not have to be particularly surprising.

Recent research suggests that the border protection system consisted of three elements:

• the Highland Line with Glen Blocker's at the eastern exits of the Highland Valleys,
• the Gask Ridge Line along Military Road and
• the Strathmore Line, but probably just the northern continuation of the Gask Ridge Line.

The crews of the auxiliary troop fort ( Auxilia ) on the Gask Ridge and the watchtowers placed between them primarily protected the strategically important military road to the ports on the Firth of Tay and Firth of Forth in the southern part of the coastal country, which secured the crews of the Glen Blocker forts the entrances to the highland valleys.

function

The Roman historian Cassius Dio writes in the early 3rd century AD that north of the “wall” (probably referring to the Antonine Wall) lived two indigenous tribes - the Maeatae and the Caledonii . This has led to the speculation that the Gask-Ridge boundary should split the settlement areas of the two tribes. Access to the Highlands via the Gask Ridge was not particularly difficult, but it was never the preferred route north for the army and merchant caravans. That led across Strathearn south of the ridge; today the modern A9 runs here . From the heights of the Gask Ridge, however, this main road could be overlooked very well. The majority of the watchtowers that were lined up along this road were in the south of the Gask Ridge, but generally do not make optimal use of the topography to ensure maximum all-round visibility, such as in Westmuir, where a position only 300 m north of the tower on the highest point of the Gask Ridge. Regardless, both Raith and Midgate watchtowers had exceptionally good views north. It is therefore likely that the watchtower crews were actually concentrating on the activities of the indigenous people in the south and the Five Peninsula, i.e. more in the direction of the ports on the North Sea coast rather than the highlands. In an emergency, the Gask-Ridge-Limes should act as a single coordinated whole and enable a rapid concentration of troops at the hot spots. Perhaps the task of the border guards was not to stop enemy warriors who had crossed the border at any cost, but to scout out where they were going to ensure that they were then tracked down, driven away or rendered harmless by the partially mounted intervention forces could become.

Another task of the crews was probably the transmission of messages with optical signals and communication with each other by means of messenger runners or messenger riders. Since all Roman long-distance signals were based on visual techniques, they could naturally only be passed between mutually visible locations. It is almost certain that - as at the other limits of the empire - there were also such forms of communication between the fortresses of the Gask Ridge, although the differences in length between the watchtowers and the as yet unexplained time when the small forts were built are not clear allow about this. The research results so far support the assumption that the watchtowers were mainly used to secure the military road and were an early warning system in the event of an attack by the highland tribes. This monitoring and communication system is also the reason why the Gask Ridge Line can be called the Limes. It enabled the Roman army to effectively protect the area they controlled southeast of Gask Ridge and keep the locals under control.

Legion camp

While the cohort and small forts along the border had enough troops to solve minor security problems and to carry out daily border police tasks, the Roman garrison depended on being able to quickly muster a large and well-equipped force to repel larger incursions to be able to. The only legionary fort on the Gask Ridge, Pinnata Castra or Victoria ( Inchtuthil ), which was able to do this, was founded around 83 AD, was about 20 hectares in size, housed the Legio Vicesimae Valeria Victrix and was the military center of that time Northern border. It stood relatively centrally at the mouth of the Strath Tay and watched the road to Inverness . From this location one had a good view of the north bank of the River Tay and could, among other things, be able to a. also block the access routes to Braemar and its hinterland. It originally served Agricola as the headquarters for some of its campaigns against the northern tribes and in the event of a crisis it could be used as a basis for quick retaliatory campaigns in the Barbaricum . Only its 5000 to 6000-strong crew would have been able to repel a major invasion. In 87 AD, it was abandoned and burned down before it was completed.

Cohort fort

The forts on Gask Ridge had a square floor plan with rounded corners (playing card shape), were between 1.8 and 3.6 hectares in size and consisted without exception of wood and earth. They could accommodate a crew of around 500 men ( cohors ) and had the standard interior buildings for early imperial auxiliary troop camps: in the center the headquarters (principia) , the commander's house (praetorium) , one or two granaries (horrea) and team barracks (contubernia) , including functional buildings such as workshops (fabricae) , bakeries and a latrine. They corresponded to the standard Roman fortifications of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Their garrisons were used for daily border security tasks. With the exception of Strageath and Bertha (distance between the two camps about 20 km), the other forts were about 11 km apart, corresponding to the distance between the ramparts along Hadrian's Wall. The Ardoch area has been opened to the public. Here you can still see particularly impressive earth walls and ditches.

The following cohort forts stood along the military road:

Fort (ancient name)	Garrison force	location
Camelon	Legio Vicesimae Valeria Victrix (Bauvexillation)	southwest of the city center of Falkirk in the Cameron district, 200 m from the south bank of the Carron (Falkirk golf course)
Doune		a little south of the center of Doune, on the north bank of the Teith
Ardoch (Alauna)	Cohors Primae Aelia Hispanorum equitata	north of Braco, on the east bank of the Knaik
Strageath		3 km northwest of Muthill, on the west bank of the Earn
Bertha		4 km northwest of Perth, east of the confluence of the Almond and the Tay

Glen Blocker forts

The name "Glen Blocker" refers to the position of a group of forts in the southwest of the Gask Ridge, at the eastern exit of the highland valleys (Gaelic Glen or Strath ) between Barocan on the Clyde and Stracathro. They were probably created during the Flavian period under Agricola and were intended to protect the agriculturally productive coastal land between Strathallan and Strathearn against incursions from the west. These camps were in a particularly exposed position, as they could be attacked unexpectedly from the glens at any time. The Bochastle camp in particular was at great risk, as its crew did not have an unrestricted view of the valley exit to be secured. It is possible that the Glen Blockers were viewed by high command as a mere interim solution (perhaps they were only occupied for one winter) while the Gask Ridge was still being fortified. Alternatively, they could have been designed as bases for rapid raids by the army into the Highlands, but these were soon to be discontinued. The forts on the second line on the Gask Ridge were better placed for the surveillance tasks, so that in the event of a crisis there was still enough time to prepare to ward off intruders. Whether the forts of Cardean, Stracathro and Doune were also among the Glen Blockers is disputed. Their locations were a little further away from their respective glens, but arguably fulfilled the same function.

The Glen Blocker group included:

Fort (ancient name)	Garrison force	location
Drumquhassle Fort		near Drymen, overlooking the south end of Loch Lomond and the road to the Clyde
Malling Castle		on the Lake of Menteith overlooking the entrance to Duke's Pass and a narrow point between the mountains and the Forth Mosses
Bochastle Castle		near Callander , overlooking the road to Loch Katrine and the Lenypass
Dalginross Castle		near Comrie overlooking the east end of Loch Earn
Fendoch Fort		north of Crieff with a view of the Sma'Glen
Small fort Inverquharity		near Kirriemuir , on the east end of Glen Clova

Small fort

These fortifications were approximately rectangular in plan, 0.1 ha large wood-earth constructions, which were surrounded by a double trench. Their crew probably did not include more than 80 men. The interior structures were also made of wood, the only gate consisted of a wooden tower with a passage that could be entered from the northwest (military road).

So far, the locations of three wood-earth small forts on the Gask Ridge Line have become known:

• Glenbank (near Dunblane ),
• Kaims (between Ardoch and Strageath) and
• Midgate (right next to a watchtower),

as well as one that is still suspected in Raith . Although the Kaims and Midgate camps have been archaeologically examined, they have provided no reliable evidence of their dating. It is therefore uncertain whether this was created at the same time as the Gask Ridge boundary system or a little later.

Watch and signal towers

A total of 18 wood-earth specimens at a distance of between 800 and 4000 meters have so far been located on the Gask Ridge. The remains of some of these towers, which are completely free in the landscape, can still be seen as slight elevations in the ground. This was not the case in the 1st century, as the forests near Gask Ridge were cleared to extract building material and allow an unobstructed view of the surrounding area. Although the route of the military road has been explored quite well, it is not clear where exactly the tower chain began or ended. The southernmost known watchtower on the road stood at Greenloaning , 2.5 kilometers south of Ardoch Castle . The northernmost one is in Huntingtower , about 3.2 km before Bertha Fort . However, it is possible that the number of tower sites known to date is not complete. The small fort Glenbank cannot be seen from Doune and although Huntingtower would have been visible from Bertha in its (probably) original tower height, both the distance to the fort and attempts with light signals indicate that there are more towers - at both ends of the Gask Ridge Line - could be discovered in the future. Other obvious gaps exist between the tower sites of Westmuir , Peel , Westerton , Strageath Castle , Greenloaning and Ardoch Castle. It was initially assumed that the signaling techniques of the time were limited to a distance of about a Roman mile. Experiments have shown, however, that almost all known visual methods of the Romans - even in less good weather - could reach much further, in particular the signals transmitted by beacons.

Detailed descriptions in:

• Small fort and watchtowers on the Gask Ridge

Military road

The most important element of the Limes was a well-developed road as a supply route for goods, services and for the rapid deployment of troops. It ran northwest of Camelon starting to Doune . Then it led in a northeasterly direction over Ardoch and Strageath, before it followed the ridge of the Gask Ridge to the east-northeast. The road used the favorable topography along the slopes between Strathallen and Strathearn, which gave the crews of the small forts and watchtowers placed there an excellent view in all directions. Between the towers of Parkneuk and Westmuir, it follows the relatively flat ridge of the Gask Ridge. From here you have a good view of both the surrounding landscape and the rest of the Gask Ridge line. She then swung again north-east to the fort at Bertha and then presumably further north towards Cargill , Inverquharity and the camp of Stracathro. The road surface consisted of a compact 7.6 m wide layer of gravel . Two V-shaped drainage ditches flanked the road and were each 0.6 m deep. The road seems to have served a purely military function. Commercial traffic used a slightly more southerly route via Strathearn (today's A9 motorway).

Marching camp

Marching Camps in Northern Britain (1st and 3rd centuries)

North of Gask Ridge were a series of marshals that were built in the 1st century to explore the Inverness area (and possibly further north). Such marching camps (some dating from the 3rd century) were also discovered in the Scottish lowlands around Aberdeenshire and Moray . Those from the 1st century were at Ardoch, Strageath, Inchtuthil, Battledykes (but probably not from the same period as the Gask Ridge castles), Stracathro, Raedykes and Elsick Mounth on the Normandykes road. Further systems of this type are also suspected in Bellie, Balnageith and Cawdor. In the 1990s, researchers found more of these fortifications north of Inverness and the Moray Firth . The main ones in Tarradale and Portmahomack. These are still being examined by the RCAHMS (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland) to check whether they are actually of Roman origin.

Fortifications of the Gask-Ridge-Limes around 85 AD (list from south to north)

• KoK = cohort fort,
• KK = small fort,
• WT = guard / signal tower

Location (type)	Distances
Glenbank (KK) - Greenloaning (WT)	approx. 2300 m
Greenloaning - Ardoch (KoK)	approx. 2750 m
Ardoch - Blackhill Wood (WT)	900 m
Blackhill Wood - Shielhill South (WT)	875 m
Shielhill South - Shielhill North (WT)	950 m
Shielhill North - Kaims (KK)	875 m
Kaims - Westerton (WT)	2300 m
Westerton - Strageath (KoK)	approx. 4200 m
Strageath - Parkneuk (WT)	1750 m
Parkneuk - Raith (WT)	1520 m
Raith - Ardunie (WT)	1510 m
Ardunie - Roundlaw (WT)	1110 m
Roundlaw - Kirkhill (WT)	960 m
Kirkhill - Muir o 'Faul (WT)	1440 m
Muir o 'Fauld - Gask House (WT)	870 m
Gask House - Witch Knowe (WT)	800 m
Witch Knowe - Moss Side (WT)	1120 m
Moss Side - Midgate (KK)	1400 m
Midgate - Westmuir (WT)	approx. 915 m
Westmuir - Peel (WT)	approx. 3975 m
Peel - Huntingtower (WT)	approx. 1940 m
Huntingtower - Bertha (KoK)	approx. 3175 m

Gask Ridge Project

The Roman Gask Ridge project was founded in 1995 by David Wooliscroft at the University of Manchester. Since then, extensive surveys, excavations and archival work have been carried out. The employees see it as their task to cover the entire Roman Scotland north of the Antonine Wall. The main focus is on the military installations on and around Gask Ridge in Perthshire, more precisely from Glenbank north of Dunblane to Bertha on the Tay. The project has so far carried out nineteen excavations, numerous other investigations and established a museum.

Timetable

• 79 AD: Agricola begins the conquest of northern England.
• 80 AD: The army marches into central Scotland and reaches the banks of the Tay.
• 81 AD: Agricola founds castles in the Lowlands, Newstead fort may also have been built that year.
• 82 AD: Agricola subjugates southwest Scotland and considers invading Hibernias, Ireland.
• 83 AD: The land army marches into the regions northwest of the Tay, the Roman fleet supports the campaign logistically along the northwest coast. A defeat of the Legio IX Hispania against the Caledonians can still be averted. The forts in Doun and Ardoch may also have been founded that year.
• 84 AD: Victory over a coalition of the northern tribes under Calgacus in the battle of Mons Graupius. Then Agricola is called back to Rome.
• 84 or 85-approx. 87 AD: His successor, Sallustius Lucullus, has been active on the Highland Line for at least two and possibly four years. The auxiliary troop fort Fendoch and the legion fortress in Inchtuthil are founded, and the Gask-Ridge-Limes may also emerge at this time.
• 87–90 AD: One of the four legions stationed in Britain, the Legio II Adiutrix , is transferred to the Danube border and Emperor Domitian decides to abandon the conquests in the north. Inchtuthil is no longer completed and abandoned, the retreat to southern Scotland is completed around 90 AD.
• approx. 90 AD: The Newstead fort is massively reinforced.
• 90-approx. 105 AD: The castles in southern Scotland are abandoned.
• 105–122 AD: A new boundary line is drawn between the Solway and the Tyne. This again comprised a chain of forts and watchtowers that were connected by a military road, the so-called Stanegate .
• 122–138 AD: Emperor Hadrian visits Britain, appoints a new governor, Platorius Nepos, and has the provincial troops reinforced. He commissioned the wall of the same name "... to separate the Romans from the barbarians." This will replace the Stanegate border after its completion.
• 139–142 AD: Shortly after his accession to the throne, Emperor Antoninus Pius instructs the British governor Lollius Urbicus to invade Scotland again and build a second wall of sod between the Forth and Clyde. The Hadrian's Wall is abandoned for the most part. Some forts on the northern border are being rebuilt. Ardoch and Newstead are also reoccupied.
• 158 AD: At least some of the Antonine camps appear to have been abandoned by their garrisons by this time, but most of them are reoccupied and repaired shortly afterwards.
• 163–165 AD: The Antonine Wall is finally abandoned, the Hadrian's Wall occupied again.
• 180 AD: The northern tribes break through Hadrian's Wall in association with the Picts, but can be driven out again by the governor Ulpius Marcellus by 184.
• 193 AD: The governor Clodius Albinus claims the imperial throne. He mobilized the provincial army and crossed with them to Gaul. Shortly thereafter, the Picts invade Britain from the north.
• 197 AD: Clodius Albinus is defeated by Septimius Severus near Lyon and is killed in the process.
• 197–207 AD: The governors Virius Lupus (197-202) and Alfenius Senecio (202-207) drive out the Picts again and stabilize the northern border.
• 208–209 AD: Emperor Septimius Severus lands with his sons and co-emperors Caracalla and Geta with considerable troop reinforcements in Britain. The peace offers of the Picts are rejected and a campaign of revenge started. The army occupies south-east Scotland as far as the Moray Firth and castles are built in Cramond and Carpow.
• 210 AD: Further campaigns in south-east Scotland.
• 211 AD: Severus dies after a long illness in York, the campaign in Scotland is broken off and Caracalla and Geta return to Rome.
• 212 AD: Caracalla murders Geta to become sole emperor in the empire. Construction work on Fort Carpow continues.
• after 212 AD: The Carpow camp is abandoned. The Romans finally withdraw from Scotland, only a few outpost forts on Hadrian's Wall remain occupied until the 4th century.

literature

• Tacitus : De vita Iulii Agricolae . ( Latin and English online ; Latin and German with commentary )
• David Breeze: Northern Frontiers of Roman Britain, 1982.
• David Breeze: Roman Scotland: Frontier Country. Historic Scotland. BT Batsford, London 2006.
• William Hanson, Gordon Maxwell: Rome's North-west Frontier: The Antonine Wall, 1986.
• William Hanson: The Roman Presence: Brief Interludes, in Kevin J. Edwards, Ian BM Ralston: Scotland After the Ice Age: Environment, Archeology and History, 8000 BC - AD 1000. Edinburgh University Press 2003.
• William Hanson: Roman campaigns north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus: the evidence of the temporary camps, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 109, Edinburgh, 1980, pp. 142, 145.
• Gordon Maxwell: Agricola's campaigns: the evidence of the temporary camps, Scot. Archaeol. Forum, Vol. 12, 1980, pp. 34-41.
• Gordon Maxwell, D. Wilson: Air reconnaissance in Britain 1977–1984, Britannia XVII, 1987.
• Gordon Maxwell: Flavian Frontiers in Caledonia, in: Hermann Vetters, Manfred Kandler: Internationaler Limeskongresses 1986, Vienna, 1990.
• William John Watson: The history of the Celtic place-names of Scotland, Irish University Press, 1973.
• David Woolliscroft: Signaling and the design of the Gask Ridge system. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 123, 1994, pp. 291-313. PDF
• David Woolliscroft: The Roman Gask series tower at West Mains of Huntingtower, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., Vol. 130, Perth & Kinross 2000. pp. 491-507.
• David Woolliscroft: Roman Military Signaling. Stroud, Gloucestershire, Tempus Publishing Ltd. 2001.
• David Wooliscroft: The Roman Frontier on the Gask Ridge: Perth and Kinross: An interim report on the Roman Gask Project 1995-2000. Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeological Reports, British Series, Volume 335, Oxford 2002.
• David Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: Rome's first frontier. The flavian occupation of Northern Scotland. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-3044-7 .
• Lawrence Keppie: Scotland's Roman Remains. Edinburgh 1986.
• George MacDonald: The Roman camps at Raedykes and Glenmailen, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 50, 1916, pp. 348-359.
• Alistair Moffat: Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History. London. Thames & Hudson, London 2005. ISBN 0-500-05133-X
• Lynn Pitts: Inchtuthil. The Roman Legionary Fortress. Britannia Monograph Series 6, 1985.
• Anne Robertson: Agricola's campaigns in Scotland, and their aftermath, Scot. Archaeol. Forum, Vol. 7, 1976, p. 4.
• John Kenneth Sinclair St. Joseph: Air reconnaissance of North Britain. In: Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 41, 1951, p. 65.
• Albert Rivet: Gask Signal Stations, in: Archeology Journal, Vol. 121, 1964.
• Ivan D. Margary: Roman roads in Britain: north of the Foss Way - Bristol Channel (including Wales and Scotland), Vol. 2. Phoenix House; 1st Edition, London 1957. pp. 221-223.
• D. Wilson: Roman Britain in 1971. I. Sites explored, Britannia, Vol. 3, 1972. p. 303.
• Nic Fields, Donato Spedaliere: Rome's Northern Frontier AD 70-235: Beyond Hadrian's Wall, Fortress, Volume 31, Osprey Publishing, Oxford / New York 2005.
• Margot Klee: Limits of the Empire. Life on the Roman Limes. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2015-8 .

Web links

Commons : Gask Ridge  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of The Roman Gask Ridge Project
• CANMORE National Record of the Historic Environment. The online catalog to Scotland's archeology, buildings, industrial and maritime heritage
• Photo of Area Glenblocker Bochastle
• Gask Ridge on CastelsFortsBattles
• Gask Ridge on ROMAN BRITAIN
• The gas frontier
• Study of the Roman Gask Frontier System, PDF
• Turmstellen, Kirkhill, Muir o Fauld, Witch Knowe and Midgate on YouTube (Peter Savin)

Remarks

1. ↑ Fields / Spedaliere 2005, p. 20, Gazetteer for Scotland, accessed 2011-05-19, Watson, 1973, p. 362, DJ Woolliscroft. "Signaling and the Design of the Gask Ridge System". The Roman Gask Project, accessed 2011-05-19.
2. ↑ Woolliscroft / Hoffmann 2010, pp. 175–177, based on Woolliscroft: http://www.theromangaskproject.org/?page_id=314 Agricola: He came, he saw, but did he conquer? Roman Gask Project website. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
3. ↑ Margot Klee 2006, p. 10.
4. ↑ Woolliscroft / Hoffmann 2010, p 34 and 234, Hanson / Maxwell 1986 Breeze of 2007.
5. ↑ Woolliscroft 2001
6. ↑ Rivet 1964, pp. 196-198, after David. J. Woolliscroft, Birgitta Hoffmann: The Roman Gask Project: Annual Report 2010 Website of the Roman Gask Project. Retrieved November 20, 2017 .
7. ↑ Woolliscroft / Hoffmann 2010, p 230, Breeze 1982 Breeze / Woolliscroft: Signaling and the design of the Roman Gask Ridge system. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 123, 1993, pp. 291-293 ( online ).
8. ↑ Leiner 1982
9. ↑ Margot Klee 2006, p. 9.
10. ↑ Keppie 1986, p. 156 ff, Klee 2006 p. 9-10.
11. ↑ Woolliscroft 1993, pp. 26-61.
12. ↑ Wilson 1972. p. 303.