Description

The monument comprises the remains of a Roman watch tower or signal station dating to the first or second century AD. The monument survives as the low earthwork remains of a circular ditch, buried tower structure and associated remains. The monument is located in a forestry clearing on a west facing slope between Nap Hill and Ring Hill at approximately 330m above sea level.   

The ditch encloses a circular area approximately 7m in diameter and it has a break in its southwest quadrant where an entrance may have been located. Archaeological excavation has confirmed the nature of the ditch as well as the presence of a four-posted square structure in the centre of the interior which is likely to have been a watch tower. 

The scheduled area is circular on plan, 22m in diameter, to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The monument was first scheduled in 1975, but the documentation does not meet current standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to contribute to the understanding of the past, in particular Roman watch towers or signal stations and their place in the military campaigning that took place in Scotland during the first and second centuries AD. Future research into the monument can help us understand the construction, architecture and any patterns of development of these monuments. The monument's importance is enhanced by its association with the Roman road and wider military network. Its loss would inhibit our ability to understand the placing of such monuments within the landscape, the nature of activity at the monument and position in the network of Roman remains within this region, in Scotland and further afield across the Roman Empire.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference number CANMORE ID 47290.

West of Scotland Archaeology Service record reference number: WOSAS PIN 10376

Maxwell, G S, 1976, A Roman timber tower at Beattock Summit, Lanarkshire in, Britannia, 7, 33-8

RCAHMS, 1978, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Lanarkshire: an inventory of the prehistoric and Roman monuments. Edinburgh.

ScARF 2012 panel Hunter, F. and Carruthers, M. (eds) Scotland: the Roman presence. Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Available online at http://tinyurl.com/d24fbpr.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/47290/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland