Cramond was a Roman auxiliary fort situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth at the mouth of the River Almond, occupying a strategic harbour position. Built c. AD 140–142 under Antoninus Pius as part of the Antonine advance into Scotland, it served as a supply base linked to the Antonine Wall (roughly 8 miles to the west at its nearest point). The fort saw two main phases of occupation: an Antonine phase abandoned c. AD 160, and a Severan reoccupation c. AD 208–212 during Septimius Severus's Scottish campaigns.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Cramond functioned as a key maritime supply depot, using its harbour to provision troops operating north of the Forth, and was likely one of the main coastal logistics nodes for the Severan campaigns alongside Carpow on the Tay. Its harbour location made it strategically distinctive among Scottish forts, bridging naval and land operations.
Excavations from the 1950s onward have revealed the stone fort defences, headquarters (principia), granaries, barracks, and an extramural bath-house, along with evidence of a substantial vicus. The most celebrated find is the "Cramond Lioness" (recovered from the Almond in 1997), a sculpted sandstone funerary monument depicting a lioness devouring a bound male captive, now in the National Museum of Scotland.
Cramond was a Roman auxiliary fort situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth at the mouth of the River Almond, occupying a strategic harbour position. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Cramond 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 Cat Stane (4.7 km), Inveresk (15.9 km), Elginhaugh Roman fort (16.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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