The Antonine Wall was the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire, constructed on the orders of Emperor Antoninus Pius beginning around AD 142 under the governor Quintus Lollius Urbicus. Running approximately 63 km from Bo'ness on the Firth of Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the Clyde, it consisted of a turf rampart on a stone foundation roughly 3 m high and 5 m wide, fronted by a substantial ditch and backed by the Military Way. Unlike Hadrian's Wall to the south, it was held only briefly — abandoned in stages during the 160s AD when the frontier reverted to the Tyne–Solway line.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The Wall represented a deliberate Antonine reoccupation and advance into southern Scotland, garrisoned by around 6,000–7,000 auxiliary troops distributed across roughly 16–19 forts spaced approximately 3 km apart — a much denser fort spacing than on Hadrian's Wall. It is particularly notable for the series of carved "distance slabs" erected by the legions (II Augusta, VI Victrix, XX Valeria Victrix) recording the lengths of wall each had built, unique sculptural records of frontier construction in the Empire.
Extensive excavation since the 19th century has revealed forts (e.g. Bearsden, Bar Hill, Croy Hill, Rough Castle
The Antonine Wall was the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire, constructed on the orders of Emperor Antoninus Pius beginning around AD 142 under the governor Quintus Lollius Urbicus. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a frontier / wall site from the Roman period in Britain.
Antonine Wall is classified as a Roman frontier / wall — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Kirkintilloch (0 km), Auchendavy (2.4 km), Cadder (4.2 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Antonine Wall