Carpow Roman Fortress

The 30 acre fortress of Carpow is the only permanent site known from the 3rd century Severan invasion. It is located on the south bank of the Tay Estuary, half way between Abernethy and Newburgh. The ditch around the fort has caused a crop-mark, clearly visible on the aerial image (shown in Red), where the buried archaeology has caused differential growth in the arable crop growing above. The road that leads to the fort is highlighted in Blue

Castle Law, Forgandenny

he first hill-fort on the site was probably constructed during the Iron Age and consisted of a single-walled timber-laced oval fort. Modifications to the fort were carried out throughout the Iron Age, and it is possible that further alteration and occupation continued into the early medieval period. The outline of the fort’s ramparts are clearly visible (in blue) as they were cleared during excavations in 1891, when the walls were found to contain the sockets for the timber beams. This, along with the accompanying ditches (in red), give a clear impression of how a timber-laced fort would have looked. Traces of at least ten platforms for timber round-houses can be seen on the ground within Castle Law.

Muir O'Fauld Roman Watchtower

The Gask Ridge frontier system is the earliest Roman land frontier in Britain, built in the 70s or 80s AD, forty years before Hadrian's Wall and sixty years before the Antonine Wall. It consisted of a system of forts, fortlets and timber-built watchtowers laid out along the line of the main Roman road through the region. Each tower was supported by four massive posts and may have been close to 10m in height. An earth and turf rampart would have surrounded the tower with at least one ditch, with a single entrance facing the road, around this. On the photo opposite the circular ditch around one of the watch-towers is marked in red, while the line of the road is shown in blue.

Strageath Roman Fort

The Roman fort of Strageath survived upstanding until the 18^th century (see the aerial picture of Ardoch on the Archaeology in Perth and Kinross page for comparison). Unfortunately the site has been ploughed out and little remains to be seen from the ground other than a flat rectangular platform. From the air much more can be seen, with the ditches defining the fort (marked in red) and road leading to the fort (marked in blue) surviving as crop-marks. Excavating the fort during the 1970s and 80s, archaeologist S. S. Frere discovered three successive phases of military occupation. The first, a garrison fort for the Gask Ridge frontier system, was built in the late first century, perhaps as early as AD 80, with abandonment no later that AD 87. The second fort (Antonine I) was built about AD 142, with this occupation coming to an end within the period AD 155-8. By AD 158, however, the site was reoccupied for the last time (Antonine II) before the final evacuation by AD 164 at the latest.

Innerpeffray Library (Road and Ford)

Just to the North East of Strageath fort, near Crieff, the Roman road crossed the river Earn and began its ascent onto the Gask Ridge, where a system of watch-towers survive along the Roman road. An earthwork cutting through a steep incline to the south of Innerpeffray library has recently been shown to contain the Roman road, indicating the Roman crossing. The image shows the crossing, with a ford, shown to be in use until the 1860s, partly visible.

Sma' Glen Roman Watchtower

This Roman Signal-station sits at the mouth of the Sma’ Glen and has a commanding view above the Roman fort of Fendoch. It is similar to those on the Gask Ridge, comprising a circular bank (around 20m in diameter), with an inner ditch enclosing a platform for a timber tower.

Dunsinnan Hillfort

In Shakespeare’s great tragedy, “high Dunsinane hill” is Macbeth’s castle or stronghold. However, there are at least two separate forts at Dunsinnan: the massively defended citadel on the summit of the hill (the rampart is marked in blue and the ditches in red) and a larger fort, enclosing the lower terraces of the hill. The larger fort probably dates to the Iron Age (1000BC-500AD) and would have contained a settlement made up of round houses. The inner fort was constructed at a later date, probably on the site of an earlier fortification, and, while we cannot say for certain that Dunsinnan hillfort was Macbeth’s castle, it is likely that occupation of the hill-fort continued into the early medieval period.

Early antiquarians carried out major excavations within the citadel during 1799 and 1854. These unscientific ‘digs’ produced conflicting and confusing records, and greatly disturbed the site (the trenches and spoil heaps from these excavations are marked in green).

Loch Monzievaird Crannogs

Of the three islands in Loch Monzievaird, two are artificial islands – known as crannogs (marked in red). Both crannogs were constructed from stone and timber piles in marshy land (the loch itself was created in the 18^th century) and may have had a variety of uses, including settlement. A radiocarbon dates taken from timber piles suggests a long history of use from around 610BC to the 19^th century AD. The blue area marks Castle Cluggy, a medieval tower, occupied at least until the 17^th century. It survives as a square tower, 8.7m by 7m with walls 1.5m thick. In an Ochtertyre charter of 1467 it is called "antiquum fortalicium" and traditionally it belonged to the Red Cumin, Robert the Bruce's antagonist.