Roman Marching Camp

Glenluce, Dumfries & Galloway

NGRef: NX1956
OSMap: LR82
Type: Marching Camp
Roads
Probable Military Road: WNW (9) to Stranraer (Dumfries & Galloway)
Probable Military Road: E (32) to Gatehouse of Fleet (Dumfries & Galloway) via Newton Stewart

"In the fifth year of campaigning ... he [Agricola] manned with troops that part of the British coast which faces Ireland ..." (Tacitus Agricola XXIV.i-ii)

Despite the absence of any supporting material evidence the Roman temporary marching camp at Glenluce was almost certainly built during the campaigns of governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola sometime around AD81 (see quote above). The fortlet at Gatehouse of Fleet about 28 miles to the east is probably contemporary.

N.G.REFDIMENSIONSAREADESCRIPTION
NX1965661,310 x c.1,310 ft
(400 x c.400 m)		c.40 acres
(c.16 ha)		Discovered on aerial photographs in 1992, this large, squarish camp lies beside the Water of Luce just south of Glenluce village. Two gateways are recorded in the middle of the NW and SW sides.
See: De Vita Julii Agricolae by Cornelius Tacitus, translated by M. Hutton (Harvard, 1970) chap.XXIV, verses.1-2;
Britannia xxv (1993) p.281.

GoTop

This page was last modified: