Cadder was a small auxiliary fort on the Antonine Wall, situated on rising ground above the River Kelvin in what is now East Dunbartonshire. Built around AD 142 as part of the Antonine frontier system, it was occupied for roughly two decades until the wall was abandoned in the early 160s. The fort enclosed approximately 1.2 hectares and would have housed a part-mounted auxiliary cohort or similar unit.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of the secondary forts spaced along the Antonine Wall between the primary garrison bases, Cadder helped control movement across the frontier and watched the Kelvin valley, an important natural corridor. It contributed to the dense military presence — the highest concentration of forts on any Roman frontier — that characterised the short-lived Antonine occupation of central Scotland.
The site was excavated by John Clarke in 1929–31 ahead of gravel quarrying, which subsequently destroyed much of it; he recorded the rampart, ditches, stone-founded headquarters (principia), granaries, barrack ranges and a bath-house outside the fort. Finds included pottery, coins, and an inscribed building stone, and Clarke's 1933 monograph remains the principal published record of the site.
Cadder was a small auxiliary fort on the Antonine Wall, situated on rising ground above the River Kelvin in what is now East Dunbartonshire. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Cadder is classified as a Roman fort — 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 Wilderness Plantation Roman fortlet (2 km), Balmuildy Roman Fort (3.7 km), Antonine Wall (4.2 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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