Description
The monument comprises the remains of a series of at least 10-12 Roman temporary camps which are sited in the area now immediately west, south and east of the Lochlands Industrial Estate, Larbert, and in the triangular area between the Glasgow/Stirling/Falkirk railway lines of Larbert Junction.
This proposal forms part of a programme which is intended to update the scheduling of the Antonine Wall and associated Roman military monuments in the Falkirk area. It adjusts the protected area to exclude areas known to have been quarried, built over or otherwise no longer meeting the criteria of national importance, as well as to include areas where new evidence of archaeological features has come to light.
The camps are known from aerial photography and excavation. The overlapping of some of the camps and the re-cutting of camp ditches indicates that they were re-used and revisited over many successive years. There are no other complexes of this kind in Scotland, as the camps were built and used at intervals throughout the Roman occupation of Scotland, from at least the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD. The date range is indicated by structural features of the camps, such as distinctive gateways, and by finds of pottery and occasional coins. The Lochlands area was an important strategic point where Roman troops were marshalled at the beginning of each campaigning season before marching north to attempt to conquer and subdue the tribes north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus. The first-century AD forts of Camelon lie close by (SAM 1746), now within Falkirk Golf Course. Further camps to either side of the Glasgow Road and part of the fort complex at Camelon have been built over, and during quarrying close to the Camelon forts, a Roman burial and a native settlement were discovered and salvaged by excavation.
The scheduled area is irregular in shape and is in five different portions. The largest part lies to the W and SW of the main Lochlands industrial estate complex, and extends south to cover part of a single discrete camp now crossed by the modern Lochlands Loan road. Two triangular parts (the larger measuring a maximum of 593m along its long axis by a maximum of 146m wide; the smaller measuring 210m by 165m by 139m) are sited in the area between Lochlands Loan and the N-S running railway line. A fourth small area, measuring a maximum of 170m by 70m, lies to the E of the N-S running railway line, and the fifth, measuring a maximum of 394m N-S by a maximum of 343m E-W, lies within the triangular area formed by the junction of the Glasgow-Stirling-Edinburgh railway lines. The scheduled areas are based on modern transcriptions of oblique aerial photographs and do not match with all of the Ordnance Survey's depictions of the camps, which are purely indicative. The above ground portions of modern structures such as pylons and disused railway embankments are excluded from the scheduling.