Marching or Temporary Camp
Temporary marching camps were created to protect the legions on the move. At the end of each day’s march a fortification was created that involved the digging of a large defensive ditch (fossa) and the building of a rampart (vallum) crowned by a palisade, around the four sides of the camp. According to the third-century Roman textbook, compiled from earlier sources, the camp (castra) was rectangular, and had rounded comers and a gate in each side; in the middle was the commanding officer's tent (praetorium), and the rest of the tents were laid out according to established rules. Within a network of streets based on two axes, the cardo and decumanus, crossing one another at right-angles at the entrance to the praetorium.
These remains are especially numerous in the extremities of the country, that is, areas in which the Roman army was engaged in repeated and/or prolonged campaigns at different stages during the Roman involvement in Britain. Thus Scotland in general has many examples whereas the north of England has comparatively fewer and the south of England has very few indeed. Wales and the Marches is another region well populated with examples of such works, and more recently the south-western and eastern extremities of England have produced evidence for appreciable Roman military activity, including examples of temporary camps.
Groups of such works, no doubt often individually re-used, occur at important staging-points, such as Newstead (Trimontium) or Glenlochar.
The terrain in which a camp is planted is often, however, unsuited to the application of rigid rules, which are then varied in common-sense fashion. Thus, while rectangularity is aimed at and often achieved, it is quite often abandoned for the parallelogram or a much less regular figure. Again, while the medium-sized camp will have four gates, large camps will have six and sometimes more, and small ones may have two or even one only. But, however its shape may vary, a Roman camp is still normally bounded by straight lines. Whatever their number, and whatever the variations from the rectangle, the sides never show any appreciable curvature. The corners are always curved, the sides never. Even when a Roman camp departs widely from the norm and becomes an irregular polygon its sides are still approximately straight.
The gates, again, afford clear indications of Roman or non-Roman origin. With rare exceptions (Cawthorn Temporary Camp C is one, Raedykes Camp is another) they do not occur at the corners of a Camp, but in its sides. Radykes, like most Roman camps, is based upon rectangular planning, but the north and west sides are distorted so as to conform to the ground, while its main corners have no gates in them. To return to the general question, the gates of camps are of two main varieties: those defended by traverses and those defended curved extensions of the rampart or ditch, if not both. The De munitionibus castrorum indeed prescribes an external tutulus combined with an internal clavicula, but this is rare in practice, and the type of gateway most often found is that with a simple tutulus, which is a detached length of rampart and ditch forming an isolated work closing the line of direct entry to a gate.
Internal Arrangements of a Roman Camp
The internal arrangements of a camp are elaborately described in the De munitionibus castrorum. In the centre was the commanding officer's tent praetorium); this faced the porta praetoria, and gave on the via principalis, joining the porta principalis dextra and the porta principalis sinistra. Parallel to this street, and behind the praetorium, ran the via quintana, at whose ends gates might or might not be provided, depending upon the size of the camp. At the back was the porta decumana. The area in front of the via principalis is the praetentura, that behind the via quintana the retentura. To right and left of the praetorium lie the latera praetorii.
So far, most camps probably conformed pretty well to the rules. We generally find that a Roman camp is rectangular or shows obvious traces of being based on the rectangular plan, and that it has either four gates - two central in the ends, two placed in the sides or six. But how far the detailed disposition of tents always or generally followed theoretical practice we cannot say. It is, however, to be observed that at Reycross, where the disposition of gates permits subdivisions to be largely defined, the ten subdivisions associated with the ramparts will accommodate ten cohorts on the scale given by the De munitionibus castrorum. This allows a calculation of a camp of about 900 feet square to house a legion. Much of this ground is taken up with administrative quarters, officers' quarters, roadways, etc.; the striga or double row of soldiers' tents, together with its central street, occupies 190 by 180 feet. Assuming, as we must in the absence of other evidence, that this represents usual practice, we must allow about 300 men to the acre in Roman camps. The ratio in permanent forts was much more amply conceived.
On ground now cultivated, Roman camps are seldom visible on the surface; their relatively slight earthworks have been obliterated by the plough. Even here, however, digging will reveal their ditches, by showing a distinction in colour and texture between their filling and the undisturbed subsoil through which they have run. The moist silty soil composing the filling will also produce variations in the growth of crops readily perceptible from an aircraft and sometimes visible on the ground. and thus, even when completely levelled by cultivation, Roman camps have been detected by air photography in very large numbers. Without this aid, they can be seen from the ground only in uncultivated country, on moorlands and wastes untouched by the plough. Here their defences are seen as a mound, from 5 to 10 feet wide and from 1 to 2 feet high in the centre, and a ditch immediately outside it. The crucial test for the Roman origin of the works is provided by the form of the gateways.
Semi-permanent Camps
Another interesting type is the special and rare kind, known to archaeologists as 'semi-permanent', erected by troops for a siege, as at Bumswark (Dumfriesshire) (Plate III b), or for a lengthy yet temporary stay while engaged upon a task of duration, as at Chew Green (Northumberland). Here the works are more massive; the mound of the rampart may be 20 feet wide, or even more, and may still stand to a height of 10 feet above the ditch bottom, even before excavation. Apart from the gateways, which are usually provided with either claviculae or traverses, such remains are not easily distinguishable from permanent forts without digging. Yet the presence of claviculae or traverses at the gates generally indicates a camp and not a fort (a few forts have traverses, hardly any have claviculae): while the distinction between the massive rampart of a semi-permanent camp and the slight rampart of a temporary camp jumps to the eye.
In a semi-permanent camp the material composing the rampart may be (as at Cawthorn B) turf, instead of earth; it may (as at Cawthom B) expand at intervals into ballistaria, emplacements for artillery, and it may (as at Cawthorn A) contain remains of ovens, Inside a semi-permanent camp may be found 'dug-outs', latrine-trenches and small continuous mounds intended to keep wind and water out from under the flies of tents - all structures suitable to a camp occupied for more than a night or two.
A camp of this kind might serve as quarters for a force on practice-work (Cawthorn) or on construction work (Chew Green) and might as at Cawthorn B, even be reoccupied another year; whereas the earthern works of a temporary camp were so easy to construct that it would generally be more convenient to make a new camp, even for a single night, than to reoccupy an old. It must be borne in mind that a ditch 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep (a fair average size) surrounding such camp as Reycross, which in 184 acres contains about 6,000 men, represents the excavation of some 3,000 cubic yards of earth; so that even if only half of the men were employed in digging, each would have no more than a cubic yard of earth to move.
The earthworks of a camp, whether temporary or semi-permanent, did not constitute its only defence. On the contrary, their main purpose was to serve as a basis for some kind of palisade. In the case of a temporary camp, this consisted merely of stakes driven into the agger; the larger earth works of a semi-permanent camp supported more elaborate palisades, which might amount to a vertical timber revetment in front of a rampart, supported by posts and spurs, as at Cawthorn A, together with an embattled timber parapet, and a wooden 'duck-board parapet walk, as illustrated on Trajan's Column. When so elaborated the earth-and-timber rampart of the semi-permanent camp becomes indistinguishable from that of the earth-and-timber type of permanent fort. The palisade of the temporary camp, on the other hand, was a portable affair; each soldier carried not less than two stakes, formed of stout straight boughs with their branches trimmed and cut short, and these were used to make the palisade when camp was pitched. It may be observed that, in a work resembling Reycross, there would only be some seven running inches of rampart per man.
The ditch of a temporary camp is normally single, 4 to 10 feet wide, and 2 to 6 feet deep. In a few cases, whether because it is completely silted up or because the ground did not permit one to be dug, no trace of a ditch is now visible, e.g. at Bellshiel (Northumberland), Reycross (Yorkshire N.R.). Almost always the ditch is V-shaped or, as the textbook calls it, fastigata (gabled). The textbook also describes another type, the "Punic" which has its outer side vertical, but this seems to have been seldom used, and examples, at Hod Hill and Cawthorn D, are confined to forts. This kind of ditch was used at the outer edge of a field of fire, because its sloping inner side invited the enemy to cross it, while the vertical side trapped them on their return. It is called Punic because of its deceptive character. In a semi-permanent camp the ditch is larger, and, as at Cawthorn D, it may be double. Thus at Cawthorn A the rampart was found standing 7 feet high and 20 feet wide, and the ditch 15 feet wide and 8 feet deep when cleared out. The bottom of a fastigate ditch is normally formed by a small square channel; this, as shown by a half-finished example at Cawthorn A, is the bottom of a straight-sided trench, wide enough for a man to stand in, the sloping sides of the ditch being then formed by raking the earth down into a basket. In a camp, whether temporary or semi-permanent, there is little berm, or level space between ditch and rampart. A berm becomes necessary only when the earthen rampart is replaced or revetted by a heavy stone wall, which might crush the lip of the ditch; or when, conversely, the ditch is cut in soft subsoil liable to slip.
Locations of Marching or Temporary Camps in Roman Britain
- Abernethy (Carey) Temporary Camp
- Abertanat Camp A
- Abertanat Camp B
- Abertanat Camp West
- Ailsworth
- Alverdiscott Camp
- Amisfield Camp
- Ancaster Camp
- Annan Hill Camp
- Annanfoot Camp
- Applegarth Camp
- Arhosfa'r Garreg-lwyd
- Astbury
- Attingham Park / Ismore Coppice
- Auchinhove Camp
- Auchtermuchty Camp
- Bagraw Camp
- Balmakewan Camp
- Balmuildy Camp
- Balnagieth Camp
- Bankhead Camp 1
- Bankhead Camp 2
- Bar Hill Camp
- Barnhill, Beattock 1 Temporary Camp
- Barrockside Camp
- Battledykes (Oathlaw) Temporary Camp
- Bean Burn Camp 1
- Bean Burn Camp 2
- Beattock, Bankend Temporary Camp
- Beattock, Barnhill 2 Temporary Camp
- Bellie Camp
- Bellshiel Camp
- Bertha Roman Fort
- Beulah Camps
- Birdhope Camps
- Birrens Temporary Camp
- Blaen-Cwmbach Marching Camp
- Blainslie Camp
- Boatside Farm Temporary Camp - Clyro
- Bochastle Temporary Camp (Callander)
- Bogton Temporary Camp
- Bonnytown Camp
- Boomby Lane 2 Temporary Camp
- Bootham Stray Marching Camp 1
- Bootham Stray Marching Camp 2
- Bowes Moor Camp
- Bowes Temporary Camp
- Boyndie Camp
- Brackenrigg Camps 1
- Brackenrigg Camps 2
- Brampton Bryan Camp
- Breckenbrough Camp
- Broadlea Temporary Camp 1
- Broadlea Temporary Camp 2
- Bromfield Camp
- Brompton 1 Temporary Camp
- Brompton 2 Temporary Camp
- Brougham Camp
- Brown Dikes Camp
- Buckton Park Temporary Camp
- Burgh by Sands 1 Temporary Camp
- Burgh by Sands 2 Temporary Camp
- Burgh by Sands Temporary Camp
- Burlington 1 Temporary Camp
- Burlington 2 Temporary Camp
- Burnfield Marching Camp
- Burnhead Temporary Camp
- Burnswark Training Camp 1
- Burnswark Training Camp 2
- Buttercrambe Moor Camp
- Calverton Camps
- Cappuck Temporary Camp
- Cardean Temporary Camp
- Carham Camp
- Carlops Camp
- Carn Caca (Melin Court Brook) Marching Camp
- Carpow Camps
- Carriden (Velvniate) Roman Fort
- Carronbridge Marching Camp
- Carstairs Mains Camp
- Carvoran (Magnis / Magna) Roman Fort
- Carzield Roman Fort
- Castlecraig Camps
- Castledykes Marching Camp 1
- Castledykes Marching Camp 2
- Castledykes Marching Camp 3
- Castledykes Marching Camp 4
- Catterick Bridge
- Cauldcoats Camp
- Cavers Mains Temporary Camp
- Cawfields Temporary Camp
- Cawthorn Temporary Camp C
- Cawthorn Temporary Camp D
- Channelkirk Camp
- Chapel Rigg Camp
- Chesters Pike Temporary Camp
- Chesterton
- Chew Green Camp 1
- Chew Green Camp 3
- Chew Green Camp 4
- Christleton Camps
- Cinders Lane, Guilden Sutton 2 Temporary Camp
- Claghorn Camps
- Clawdd Coch Camps
- Coelbren Camp
- Coesike East Temporary Camp
- Coesike West 1 and 2 Temporary Camp
- Cold Chapel Marching Camp
- Cornhill Marching Camp
- Cound Hall Marching Camp
- Crackenthorpe Temporary Fort
- Craigarnhall Marching Camp
- Crawford Marching Camp A
- Crawford Marching Camp B & C
- Crooks Temporary Camp
- Cwm Nant Marching Camp (St Harmon)
- Dalginross Temporary Camps
- Dalkeith Marching Camp
- Dalnair Temporary Camp
- Dalswinton Camp 1 Bankfoot
- Dalswinton Camp 2, Bankfoot
- Dargues Marching Camp
- Deer's Den, Kintore Temporary Camp 1
- Denholm / Eastcote Temporary Camp
- Derwydd Bach Camp
- Dorking
- Dornock Temporary Camp
- Drumlanrig Marching Camp
- Drumlanrig Roman Fort
- Drumlanrig Temporary Camp 2
- Drygrange Temporary Camp
- Dullatur Camps
- Dun Temporary Camp
- Dunblane Camps
- Dunipace Marching Camp
- Durisdeer Marching Camps
- Durisdeer Roman Fort
- Eassie Temporary Camp
- East Learmouth Temporary Camp
- Easter Cadder Temporary Camp
- Easter Powside Temporary Camp
- Edenwood Camp
- Elginhaugh Roman Fort
- Ellisland Temporary Camps
- Esgairperfedd Temporary Camp
- Eshiels Temporary Camps
- Eskbank Marching Camps
- Fala Mill Temporary Camp
- Farnley Temporary Camp 1
- Farnley Temporary Camp 2
- Farnley Temporary Camp 3
- Farnsfield Marching camp
- Featherwood Camps
- Fell End Temporary Camp
- Finavon Temporary Camp
- Forteviot Temporary Camp
- Fourmerkland Camps
- Gagie Marching Camp
- Gallaberry Marching Camp
- Galley Gill Temporary Camp
- Garnhall Temporary Camp 1
- Garnhall Temporary Camp 2
- Gask House Temporary Camp
- Gilnockie Temporary Camp
- Girvan Mains East Temporary Camp
- Girvan Mains West Temporary Camp
- Glanmiheli Marching Camp
- Gleadthorpe Marching Camp
- Glencorse Mains Fortlet
- Glenlochar 1 Temporary Camp
- Glenlochar 2 Temporary Camp
- Glenlochar 3 & 4 Temporary Camps
- Glenlochar 5 Temporary Camp
- Glenluce Temporary Camp
- Glenwhelt Leazes Temporary Camp
- Gogar Green Camp
- Golden Fleece (Carleton) Marching Camp
- Gourdie, Steeds Stalls Temporary Camp
- Grassy Walls Temporary Camp
- Greenlee Lough Temporary Camp
- Greensforge 1 Temporary Camp
- Greensforge 2 Temporary Camp
- Greensforge 3 Temporary Camp
- Greensforge 4 Temporary Camp
- Greensforge 5 Temporary Camp
- Grindon Hill Temporary Camp
- Grindon School Temporary Camp
- Groat Haugh Temporary Camp (Norham Camp)
- Guilden Sutton Camps
- Haltwhistle Burn 1 Temporary Camp
- Haltwhistle Burn 2 and 3 Temporary Camp
- Haltwhistle Burn 4 Temporary Camp
- Hangingshaw Camp
- Hindwell Farm Roman Fort and Camp
- Holme Marching Camp
- Hoole Temporary Camp
- Horstead Temporary Camp
- Inchtuthil Camps
- Inchtuthil Temporary Camp I
- Inchtuthil Temporary Camp II
- Inchtuthil Temporary Camp III
- Inchtuthill Temporary Officers Compound
- Innerleithen Temporary Camp
- Innerpeffray East Temporary Camp (Parkneuk Cottage)
- Innerpeffray West Temporary Camp
- Inveravon Temporary Camp 1
- Inveravon Temporary Camp 2
- Inveravon Temporary Camp 3
- Inveresk Marching Camp
- Invergowrie Marching Camp
- Inverquharity Fortlet
- Inverquharity Temporary Camp
- Islafoot, Drumlanrig Temporary Camp
- Kaimhouse Lodge Temporary Camp
- Kair House Marching Camp
- Kedslie Temporary Camp
- Keithock Temporary Camp
- Kinglass Park Marching Camp
- Kinnell Camp
- Kinnell Marching Camp
- Kintore Temporary Camp 2
- Kirkbuddo Temporary Camp
- Kirkby Thore 1 Temporary Camp
- Kirkby Thore 2 Temporary Camp
- Kirkby Thore 3 Temporary Camp
- Kirkhouse Marching Camp
- Kirkpatrick-Fleming Temporary camps
- Knockcross Temporary Camp
- Knowe Farm (Old Penrith 3)
- Lamington Marching Camp
- Langwathby Moor Temporary Camp
- Lees Hall Temporary Camp
- Leighton Temporary Marching Camps
- Limestone Corner Temporary Camp
- Lintrose Marching Camp
- Little Clyde Marching Camp
- Little Kerse Temporary Camp
- Llanfor Roman Fort
- Llanfor Temporary Camp
- Lochlands Temporary Camp 1
- Lochlands Temporary Camp 2
- Lochlands Temporary Camps 3, 4 & 5
- Lochmaben Temporary Camp
- Logie Camp
- Logie Durno Camp
- Longforgan Temporary Camp
- Loomer Road Marching Camp
- Lugton Marching Camp
- Lunanhead Camp
- Lyne Roman Fort
- Lyne Temporary Camp 1
- Lyne Temporary Camp 2
- Malham Marching Camp
- Malling Temporary Camp
- Manley Marching Camp
- Marching Camp Plumpton Head
- Marcus Marching Camp
- Markham Cottage 1 Temporary Camp
- Markham Cottage 2 Temporary Camp
- Maxton Camp
- Menteith Temporary Camp (Malling)
- Mertoun Bridge Temporary Camps (St. Boswells)
- Middlebie Hill Temporary Camp
- Milestone House Camp
- Millburn Tower Temporary Camp
- Millside Wood Temporary Camp
- Milnquarter Camp
- Milrighall Temporary Camp
- Milton (Tassiesholm) Forts
- Milton (Tassiesholm) Temporary Camp
- Moss Side Camps
- Muirhouses Camp
- Muiryfold Temporary Camp
- Mumrills Roman Fort
- Nemetostatio Roman Fort
- Newstead (Trimontium) Temporary Camps 1, 2 and 3
- Newstead Temporary Camp 4
- Newstead Temporary Camp 5
- Newton Kyme Temporary Camp
- Newton-on-Trent Marching Camp 1 and 2
- Newton-on-Trent Marching Camp 1 and 2
- Normandyke Marching Camp
- North Slipperfield Marching Camp
- North Tawton Marching Camp
- North Yardhope Marching Camp
- Norton 1 Temporary Camp
- Norton 2 Temporary Camp
- Norton Fitzwarren Temporary Camp
- Nowtler Hill 1 Temporary Camp (Grinsdale)
- Nowtler Hill 2 Temporary Camp (Grinsdale)
- Ochtertyre Temporary Camp
- Old Penrith (Voreda) Roman Fort
- Oxton Camp 1, Channelkirk
- Oxton Camp 2, Channelkirk
- Pathhead Camps
- Pathhead Temporary Camp 3
- Pen y Gwrhyd Marching Camp
- Pen-y-Coedcae Marching Camp
- Pennymuir Temporary Camp A
- Pennymuir Temporary Camp B
- Pennymuir Temporary Camp C
- Penrhos Marching Camp
- Picton Temporary Camp
- Pipers Ash, Guilden Sutton 3 Temporary Camp
- Polmonthill Temporary Camp
- Quatt Temporary Camp
- Raeburnfoot Temporary Camp
- Raedykes Camp
- Rey Cross (Bowes) Marching Camp
- Ruthwell Camp
- Saham Toney
- Sandforth Moor Temporary Camp
- Sandhoe Temporary Camp
- Scone Park Camp
- Seabegs Wood Roman Fortlet
- Seatsides 1 Temporary Camp
- Shawhead Temporary Camps
- Shurnock Temporary Camp
- Silloans Marching Camp
- Sills Burn North Marching Camp
- Sills Burn South Marching Camp
- St Madoes Camp
- St. Leonards Hill Temporary Camp
- Stracathro Temporary camp
- Strageath Cottage Temporary Camp
- Stretford Bridge 2 Temporary Camp (Craven Arms)
- Summerston Farm Temporary Camp
- Summerston Roman Fortlet
- Sunny Rigg 1 Temporary Camp
- Sunny Rigg 2 Temporary Camp
- Sunny Rigg 3 Temporary Camp
- Swindon Camp
- Swine Hill 1 and 2 Marching Camps
- Tamfourhill Camp
- Tollpark Camp
- Tomen Y Mur Practice Camp
- Torwood Camp
- Trailflat Camp
- Troutbeck Marching Camp 1
- Troutbeck Marching Camp 2
- Troutbeck Marching Camp 3
- Twechar Camp
- Twice Brewed Temporary Camp
- Twyn-y-Briddallt Marching Camp
- Uffington Temporary Camp
- Ulston Moor Camp
- Upper Affcot Camp
- Upton Grange Moat Temporary Camp
- Upton-by-Chester Marching Camp 1
- Upton-by-Chester Marching Camp 2
- Upton-by-Chester Marching Camp 3
- Upton-by-Chester Marching Camp 4
- Upton-by-Chester Marching Camp 6
- Walford Camp
- Wall Marching Camp 1
- Wall Marching Camp 2
- Walton Temporary Camp 1
- Walton Temporary Camp 2
- Walton Temporary Camp 3
- Walwick Fell Temporary Camp
- Wandel Marching Camp
- Warcop Temporary Camp
- Ward Law Camp
- Watchclose Camp
- Water Eaton (Kinvaston) 1 Temporary Camp
- Water Eaton (Kinvaston) 2 Temporary Camp
- Water Eaton (Stretton Mill) 3 Temporary Camp
- Water Eaton (Stretton Mill) 4 Temporary Camp
- Water Eaton (Stretton Mill) 5 Temporary Camp
- Waterside Mains Camp
- Wath
- Waverton Temporary Camp
- West Woodburn Camp
- Whittington Marching Camp
- Willowford Temporary Camp
- Wooden Home Farm Temporary Camp
- Woodhead Camp
- Y Pigwn
- York (Eburacum) Roman Settlement
- Ystradfellte Marching Camp
- Ythan Wells Temporary Camp 1
- Ythan Wells Temporary Camp 2 (Glenmailen)