Wilderness Plantation is one of the small fortlets attached to the Antonine Wall, located between the forts of Balmuildy and Cadder in what is now East Dunbartonshire. Like the other Antonine Wall fortlets, it was occupied during the relatively brief Antonine period in Scotland, roughly AD 142 to the 160s, and would have housed a small detachment (perhaps 10–20 men) tasked with surveillance and controlling movement through a gateway in the rampart.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
It forms part of the regular system of milefortlets spaced along the Antonine Wall — comparable to the milecastles of Hadrian's Wall — confirming that the Antonine Wall was planned with a similar close-spaced fortlet system, even though only a handful (including Wilderness Plantation, Kinneil, Seabegs Wood, and Croy Hill) have been positively identified.
First identified by aerial photography in 1965, the site was subsequently investigated by limited excavation in the 1960s–70s, which revealed a small turf-rampart enclosure of roughly 18–20 m square attached to the rear of the Wall, with internal timber buildings and north and south gateways; no substantial assemblage of finds has been published, and the structure is no longer visible above ground.
Wilderness Plantation is one of the small fortlets attached to the Antonine Wall, located between the forts of Balmuildy and Cadder in what is now East Dunbartonshire. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Wilderness Plantation Roman fortlet is classified as a Roman fortlet — 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 Balmuildy Roman Fort (1.7 km), Cadder (2 km), Bearsden Roman bath house (5.2 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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