OSMap: LR65
Type: Roman Fort, Minor Settlement, 2 Marching Camps.
The Site of Carriden/Veluniate
looking west towards Carriden House
Antonine Wall: W (3¾) to Kinneil (Central)
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NGRef: NT0280 OSMap: LR65 Type: Roman Fort, Minor Settlement, 2 Marching Camps. |
The Site of Carriden/Veluniate looking west towards Carriden House |
| Roads | |
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Probable Road: E (11) to Cramond (Edinburgh, Lothian) Antonine Wall: W (3¾) to Kinneil (Central) | |
| I O M VIKANI CONSI[.] TENTES CASTEL[LVM] VELVNIATE CV[RAM] AGENTE AEL MAN SVETO VSLLM |
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| "To Jupiter Best and Greatest, the resident villagers of the fortified settlement of Veluniate, administered through the agency of Aelius Mansueto, willingly, gladly and deservedly fulfill their vow." (J.R.S. xlvii, 1957, pp.229-30) |
This fort and settlement lies on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth overlooking Torry Bay in Fife, and is situated very close to the eastern terminus of the Antonine Wall at Bo'ness, which lay only a couple of miles to the west. It has been suggested that Carriden and other forts at Cramond and Inveresk formed a chain of forts along the Lothian (southern) shore of the Firth of Forth, perhaps augmented by others as yet undiscovered. This idea is sound, as it would mirror the situation at the western end of Hadrian's Wall to the south, where a chain of forts and watchtowers have been identified all along the coast of Cumbria, the so-called 'Western Sea Defenses'.
"Observation from the air in 1945 disclosed at Carriden the defences of the long-lost Roman fort. Photographs record three ditches, forming the defences of the east and part of the south side. The east side was some 440 ft. long, and contained a gate 150 ft. from the south-east angle ; the length of the south rampart appears to have been at least 400 ft. Trial trenches dug in 1946 located the defences on the east side and yielded pottery of Antonine date. The western half of the fort lies within the grounds of Carriden House, while even such part of the site as is available for digging seems to have been heavily denuded." (St. Joseph, 1951)
Photographs from 1945 showed a triple ditch system on the east and south sides of this fort, which measures roughly 440 ft. from north-south by 400 ft. transversely (c.134 x 122 m), enclosing an area of around 4 acres (c.1.6 ha).
Like many Roman forts in Scotland, Carriden has a couple of marching camps nearby; at Kinglass Park (NT0080) and Muirhouses (NT0180), both near Bo'ness, Central.
| COH VIII > STA TELES |
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| "The Eighth Cohort, century of Stateles." (RIB 2138) |
The only inscribed Roman stone reported in the RIB from the Carriden site is undoubtedly a legionary building stone (vide RIB 2138 supra), which proves the presence of the military, however, an altar to Jupiter was found at the site "ploughed up about 150 yards to the East of the fort" in 1956, dedicated by the vicani consistentes proving that there was a civil settlement here also. A photograph of the altarstone appears in the handbook 'The Antonine Wall' by Anne Robertson, published by the Glasgow Archaeological Society in 1960. The stone now resides in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh. The text of the stone, as it appears in Robertson's photograph, is shown above with a tentative translation.
The name of this minor settlement was not listed among the four towns attributed to the Selgovae tribe by Ptolemy, but there is classical confirmation of the Roman name for Carriden within the Ravenna Cosmology (R&C#191). This seventh-century geographical work records the entry Velunia - between the unidentified stations Rumabo and Volitanio - which may be rendered in the nominative as Veluniate.
In addition to the Veluniate stone, a Roman dedicatory building inscription has been recovered from the Wall nearby Bo'ness (vide RIB 2139 infra).
| IMP CAES TITO AELIO HADRI ANTONINO AVG PIO P P LEG II ΛVG PER M P IIII DCLII FEC |
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| "For Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, Father of his Country, The Second Augustan Legion, were responsible for building four thousand six-hundred and fifty-two paces [of the rampart wall]." (RIB 2139; dated: AD139-161) |
This distance slab is decorated with a relief of a Roman religious festival known as the suovetaurilia. Also depicted on the stone is a vexillum or legionary divisionary standard bearing a secondary inscription LEG II AVG "Legio Secundae Augusta". The stone was found in 1868 at the butt-end of the Antonine Wall on Windmill Hill, overlooking the Firth of Forth.
The only pottery of note is a piece of samian Form 37 bearing the stamp of Cinnamus, which is dated to the Antonine period.
Only 2 coins have been recovered from the Carriden area, an aureus? (possibly only brass) of Vespasian, now lost, and a sestertius of Hadrian found on the ground surface.
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