Description
The monument comprises a Roman fort, annexes and a field system of late 1st century and mid 2nd century date, visible as cropmarks on oblique aerial photographs. When the monument was first scheduled in 1936, only part of the fort was known. Subsequent aerial photography has revealed the greater extent of the fort and has identified annexes to the N and W, and a field system to the SW. The monument is being rescheduled to extend protection to cover the whole of the known archaeologically sensitive area.
The monument lies in arable farmland at around 35m OD. It consists of three main elements; a multivallate fort, the annexes to the fort, and a small field system. The fort, which excavation has shown to have had at least three separate phases of construction, is trapezoidal in shape. It is defined by a complex system of ditches. There are at least 3 and, at some points, up to 7 parallel ditches defining the S, E and NE perimeters of the fort, enclosing an area measuring about 140m E-W and about 130m N-S. To the W, NW and SW of the fort are annexes measuring about 150m E-W and about 340m N-S overall. The annexes have more extensive outworks than the fort itself, and flank the road into the fort. About 250m to the NNW of the fort are traces of another annexe, visible as a number of ditches measuring up to about 5m in width. This annexe measures about 180m E-W and about 100m N-S. The complex of fort and annexes measures a total of approximately 480m N-S and about 430m E-W.
Immediately to the SW of the fort and annexes is a small field system consisting of at least 12 units of land, separated by ditches measuring about 1m wide. The field system measures about 170m N-S by about 150m E-W overall.
The fort of Strageath is thought to have been initially constructed and occupied during Agricola's campaigns in AD79 and the early 80s AD, only to be abandoned by the end of the 80s AD when the Roman army withdrew to the Forth-Clyde valley. The fort lies at the W end of the Gask ridge, along which there are a number of Roman watch towers. These towers are thought to have been constructed to control and observe movement in and out of the Roman controlled province following the abandonment of Roman forts further north in the years AD87 and AD88. It therefore seems likely that although the fort was initially constructed during a period of Roman expansion, possibly as early as the year AD79, it may also have been at the NW frontier of the Roman Empire in the period between the withdrawal of the Roman army from the more northerly forts and the subsequent withdrawal to the Forth-Clyde valley in the late 80s AD.
The fort was occupied again during the Antonine periods in the mid 2nd century, when it served as an outpost fort for the Antonine Wall. Excavation has demonstrated two periods of Antonine occupation, with the fort being re-planned at the end of the first period. At this time, the defences of the fort were considerably enlarged and the number of barracks within the fort increased from eight to twelve.
The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to survive. It is irregular in shape, with maximum dimensions of 640m E-W by 510m N-S, as marked in red on the accompanying map extract.