DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0060
V.—Descriptions of Sections.
Preliminary Notes.
In the following descriptions of the sections, the order adopted
has been almost invariably that in which the sections were
made. The attention of the Society was first called to the
subject when a cutting for the Carron Company's branch
railway, passing under Croy Hill, laid bare a section of the
Koman military way not far from Dullatur. Some interest
having been thus aroused, Mr. Alexander Park, factor for
Mr. Alexander Whitelaw of Gartshore, made a further exami-
nation of the ground, with the result that, in course of an
excavation a few feet from the edge of the fosse of the
vallum, he came upon two parallel lines of squared kerbs,
14 feet apart, with rough bottoming between. In view of the
fact that the vallum, at that point, had been practically levelled
by the plough long before, it was a natural enough supposition at
first that this was another and hitherto unknown Roman road,
but further cuttings executed by Mr. Park, under the guidance of
Mr. William Jolly, soon made it apparent that this was no
military way at all but the foundation of the vallum—the free-
stone base which had puzzled Gordon 160 years before, and had
received passing notice from all subsequent writers. None of
them, however, had recorded the existence of kerbs roughly
squared and set, which certainly were quite in keeping with the
possibility of a road having run alongside the wall.1 The
1 A second theory, propounded by one writer in the newspapers, that it was
originally a causeway on the top of the wall for the use of the soldiers, and that
it had sunk bodily through the vallum in consequence of the action of earthworms,
was so delightful a jocosity as to merit passing mention.
Preliminary Notes.
In the following descriptions of the sections, the order adopted
has been almost invariably that in which the sections were
made. The attention of the Society was first called to the
subject when a cutting for the Carron Company's branch
railway, passing under Croy Hill, laid bare a section of the
Koman military way not far from Dullatur. Some interest
having been thus aroused, Mr. Alexander Park, factor for
Mr. Alexander Whitelaw of Gartshore, made a further exami-
nation of the ground, with the result that, in course of an
excavation a few feet from the edge of the fosse of the
vallum, he came upon two parallel lines of squared kerbs,
14 feet apart, with rough bottoming between. In view of the
fact that the vallum, at that point, had been practically levelled
by the plough long before, it was a natural enough supposition at
first that this was another and hitherto unknown Roman road,
but further cuttings executed by Mr. Park, under the guidance of
Mr. William Jolly, soon made it apparent that this was no
military way at all but the foundation of the vallum—the free-
stone base which had puzzled Gordon 160 years before, and had
received passing notice from all subsequent writers. None of
them, however, had recorded the existence of kerbs roughly
squared and set, which certainly were quite in keeping with the
possibility of a road having run alongside the wall.1 The
1 A second theory, propounded by one writer in the newspapers, that it was
originally a causeway on the top of the wall for the use of the soldiers, and that
it had sunk bodily through the vallum in consequence of the action of earthworms,
was so delightful a jocosity as to merit passing mention.