Soldiers, Sailors, Rebels & Outlaws

For brief spells during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, central and southern Scotland became part of the Roman Empire.  This was the period that saw Scotland enter into recorded history for the first time.

Britain was a late addition to Rome’s Empire and was at the North Western edge of its influence which spanned most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.  Southern Britain was conquered quickly in the reign of the emperor Claudius, around AD43, but the North of the country, which would in later centuries come to be known as Scotland, proved more problematic. During the Roman conquest of Britain the South-West of Scotland was made up of several tribes: The Selgovae in East Kirkcudbright and Dumfrieshire; the Novantae in South Ayrshire; and the Damnonii in North Ayrshire.  The Damnonii had fairly good relations with the Romans while they had to rule the territory of the Selgovae with a tight infrastructure of forts and roads who offered most resistance in South-west Scotland.  Little is known of the attitudes towards the occupiers of the Novantae as they seem to have been a less united people.  

The Romans finally started pushing north successfully around AD76 under the leadership of the General Julius Agricola (Governor of Britain AD78-84) during the reign of the Emperor Flavius.  According to Tacitus (who was Agricola’s son-in-law), in AD82, Agricola concentrated his troops in that part of Britain which looks at Ireland, probably meaning Galloway or South Ayrshire.  It is certain that he penetrated Galloway in force from one of his main roads which crossed Annandale and had branches to forts at Dalswinton and Glenlochar, in the valley of Dee.  Glenlochar was a large fort which could hold a thousand men.  Dalwinton may have held twice this amount of troops, infantry and cavalry.  These tough frontier garrisons would have been able to quell any unrest among the Novantae. Further north a road went to a fort (large enough for 500 men) at Loudoun Hill in East Ayrshire.  This road continued west possibly to Irvine or Ayr giving them a port from which to supply their forts or to allow their fleet to supply more men. Temporary camps have been located by aerial survey at Girvan Mains and outside Largs, a Roman patrol post has been located.     It is obvious from these roads and forts that Agricola had divided the region into small easily controlled areas which were garrisoned in strength.

 In AD84 Agricola decisively crushed the Caledonian tribes at the Battle of Mons Graupius (probably near Aberdeen). He is recorded to have boasted that by the end of the battle 10,000 Caledonians lay dead on the field without a single drop of Roman blood having been shed.  This statement was probably true; his army had been made up of foreign auxiliaries and therefore were not Roman.  Agricola may have recruited tribesmen from south west Scotland into his army; this possibility is enhanced by the finding of a Roman sword hilt found at a Damnonii hill fort at Castlehill near Dalry.

 Many of the Caledonian tribesmen that had escaped Mans Graupius remained a constant and potent threat to the Roman occupiers.  North Britain proved unprofitable, dangerous and the climate was harsh and Agricola withdrew shortly after Mons Graupius to the Tyne-Solway line, where the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall around AD122.  This defence marked the edge of the Empire.  It had gates which enabled the Romans to collect taxes from people passing into the Roman Empire.  After the death of the Emperor Hadrian however, his successor, Antonius Pius commanded his army north again.  A new frontier, the Antonine Wall, was constructed from the Forth to the Clyde.  This was a short-lived foray however and it was abandoned around AD165 and the garrisons returned to the Hadrian frontier where they were to remain except for a short expedition further north in the 3rd century under the command of the Emperor Septimus Severus.

South-west Scotland was only occupied militarily for short periods which meant that the Romans never settled here so the only evidence of them being here are marks on the landscape revealing evidence of temporary military camps), roads (it was a Roman road that Edward II of England marched his army along to confront the Scots at Bannockburn), forts and watchtowers.  There is no evidence or records to show that any Roman towns were established or grand villas built in the area and only one large full-scale fortress is known of in Scotland and that was built further north, at Inchtuthil on the Tay during the Flavian occupation.   Finds of hoards of nails and farming implements found in Kirkcudbrightshire however show that a long term occupation along an agricultural model had been planned.