Logie Durno (Durno) is a large Roman temporary marching camp in Aberdeenshire, enclosing approximately 58 hectares (144 acres), making it the largest known Roman camp north of the Antonine Wall. It is generally attributed to the Flavian campaigns of Gnaeus Julius Agricola in the early-to-mid 80s AD, and has been proposed by J.K. St Joseph as the most likely assembly point for the Roman army before the battle of Mons Graupius (AD 83 or 84), with the nearby hill of Bennachie identified as a candidate for the "Mons Graupius" itself.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
If correctly identified with the Mons Graupius campaign, Durno represents the staging ground for the decisive engagement of Agricola's northern conquest, capable of accommodating a combined force of legionary and auxiliary troops (perhaps 25,000+ men). Its exceptional size sets it apart from the smaller series of camps (e.g. the 'Stracathro-type' and 110-acre series) that mark Roman penetration into north-east Scotland.
The site was identified through aerial photography by St Joseph in 1975, which revealed the cropmark circuit of the ditch and traces of gates with tituli; limited ground investigation has confirmed the defences but no significant interior structures or datable finds have been recovered, which is typical of short-occupation marching camps. Its dating therefore rests on
Logie Durno (Durno) is a large Roman temporary marching camp in Aberdeenshire, enclosing approximately 58 hectares (144 acres), making it the largest known Roman camp north of the Antonine Wall. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Logie Durno camp is classified as a Roman military camp — 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 Normandykes (28.5 km), Auchinhove camp (35.2 km), Raedykes camp (36.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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