Kirkintilloch Fort

Antonine Wall Fort and Fort

The Antonine fort at Kirkintilloch was built on a hill overlooking from the south-west the confluence of a minor brook with the River Kelvin. The fort now lies just south of the A803 roundabout, west of the town centre, beneath the modern streets of Kirkintilloch. It has undergone only minor exploration during the years 1953-79 and minor excavations in 1988/9. The area covered by the fort is possibly around 3½ acres (1.4 ha).

The only pieces of dateable pottery are sherds of Form 33 decorated ware stamped by the Antonine potter Malliacus. There have been seven coins recovered from the Kirkintilloch site; single issues of the emperors Galba, Titus, Domitian, Antoninus Pius, Commodus, Constantine I and Justinian I.

RIB2184 - Distance slab of the Twentieth Legion
The Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix built 3 miles, 3304 feet.
LEG ▸ XX
V ▸ V FEC ▸
M P ▸ III ▸ P
IIICCCIV
Sir George Macdonald notes the superscript bar above the second group of digits which makes them read as 'thousands'. The resultant figure of 3,304 feet makes 660-⁴⁄₅ paces, which when added to 3 miles, or 3,000 paces, makes a total distance of 3,660-⁴⁄₅ paces, very closely approximating to the distance of 3,666½ paces paces cited on RIB 2186, 2193, 2194, 2196 R.P.W.

RIB2185 - Distance slab of the Sixth Legion
For the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, father of his country, a detachment of the Sixth Legion Victrix Pia Fidelis (built) for a distance of one mile.
IMP ▸ CAESARI ▸ T ▸
AELIO ▸ HADRIAÍ¡NO
ANTONINO ▸ AVG ▸
PIO ▸ P ▸ P ▸ VEXILLA
LEG ▸ VI<
6.  per · m · p The stone has never had more letters. It is usually supposed that the stone was never completed by the addition of numerals after m · p, but it seems more probable that it records a single mile, m(ille) p(assus) (see G. Macdonald loc. cit.). Addenda from RIB+add. (1995): Keppie (PSAS) suggests that the slab was unfinished like RIB 2199. Alternatively the numeral might have been added in paint when known.
“Kirkintilloch” comes from the Gaelic Cair Cheann Tulaich or Cathair Cheann Tulaich, meaning “fort at the end of the hill”.

References for Kirkintilloch Fort

  • The Roman Wall in Scotland by Sir George MacDonald (Oxford, 2nd Ed. 1934) pp.289-296 ;
  • The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965);
  • The Roman Occupations of Scotland by B.R. Hartley in Britannia iii (1972) pp.1-55;
  • Chronology of the Ancient World by E.J. Bickerman (Thames & Hudson, London, 1980);
  • Chronicle of the Roman Emperors by Chris Scarre (Thames & Hudson, London, 1995);
  • A Survey of the Coin Finds from the Antonine Wall by Richard Abdy in Britannia xxxiii (2002) pp.189-217;

Roman Roads near Kirkintilloch Fort

Antonine Wall: E (1.75) to Avchendavy (Strathclyde) Antonine Wall: W (1) to Glasgow Bridge (Strathclyde)