Castlehill was a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in Scotland.
The fort is located in East Dunbartonshire, west of Bearsden and east of Duntocher, south of the A810 Duntocher Road. Its neighbouring forts are Bearsden to the east and Duntocher to the west although there is a fortlet at Cleddans in between, with Hutcheson Hill nearer still.
A circular enclosed plantation of beech trees is about all a visitor can see nowadays. The summit of Castlehill provides a wide panorama overlooking many historical finds.
It's sometimes hard to see the exact line of the Antonine Wall at the location but there is some existing signage.
In the 1900s several historians gave their own idiosyncratic descriptions of the site.
Two Roman distance slabs were found at the site. One can be compared with another found near Summerston. Both these similar slabs, like two others from Duntocher have two decorative pelta shields, one on either side of the slab. The horns of each shield are embellished with three rosettes on the Castlehill slab whereas the Summerston slab has these end in two griffins' heads.
The first, badly weathered, slab has four rosettes between the shields and the inscription. It was found in 1803 on Low Millochan farm. The farm, later called East Millichen, is near Summerston. It was built into a dovecote and records the building of 3666.5 paces of wall by the Sixth Legion. MacDonald describes the work as course and relates that some of the abbreviations are unusual. He suggests that it stood side-by-side with what he calls no. 6 (RIB 2193) at Summerston. On the similar Castlehill slab (RIB 2196) he suggests the stone-cutter has blundered and made a letter P where he should have a letter F (for Fidelis) on the fourth line. The Castlehill slab also records 3666.5 paces although the units used are a matter of ongoing research.
Many Roman forts along the wall held garrisons of around 500 men. Larger forts like Castlecary and Birrens had a nominal cohort of 1000 men but probably sheltered women and children as well although the troops were not allowed to marry. There is likely too to have been large communities of civilians around the site.
"distance slab of the Sixth Legion, recording the completion of 3666.5 paces". Hunterian Museum Archaeology & Ethnography Collections: GLAHM F.6. University of Glasgow. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
"distance slab of the Twentieth Legion, recording the completion of 3000 feet". Hunterian Museum Archaeology & Ethnography Collections: GLAHM F.6. University of Glasgow. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Castlehill was a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in Scotland. The fort is located in East Dunbartonshire, west of Bearsden and east of Duntocher, south of the A810 Duntocher Road. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Castlehill 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 Cleddans (1.7 km), Bearsden (1.9 km), Bearsden Roman bath house (2.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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