Castlecary was a stone-built Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in central Scotland, occupied during the Antonine period (c. AD 142–165). Unusually for forts on the Wall, it was constructed in stone rather than turf, covered roughly 1.4 hectares, and projected northward from the Wall's line, garrisoned at different times by detachments of Legio II Augusta and the Cohors I Tungrorum and Cohors I Fida Vardullorum (the latter attested epigraphically).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of the larger primary forts on the Antonine Wall, Castlecary controlled an important sector midway along the frontier and guarded the approach where the Wall crossed the Red Burn. It is among the better-attested Antonine Wall forts in terms of inscriptions, including altars to Mercury, Mars, Neptune, Minerva, and the Genius of the place.
Excavations in 1902 by the Glasgow Archaeological Society revealed the stone rampart, four gates, headquarters building (principia), commanding officer's house, granaries, barracks, and a bath-house outside the fort, alongside numerous altars and building inscriptions. The site was subsequently damaged by the construction of the Edinburgh–Glasgow railway, which cut across its southern portion, and parts have been further affected by the modern motorway corridor.
Castlecary was a stone-built Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in central Scotland, occupied during the Antonine period (c. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Castlecary 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Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Withdrawn (duplicate): Seabegs Wood (2.3 km), Seabegs Wood (2.8 km), Westerwood (3.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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