Witch Knowe Signal Station

Gask Ridge Signal Station

Lying some 100 yards (c.91.4m) north of the military road, the old Ordnance Survey maps record that human skeletons were discovered here in 1855. Excavated by Dr. Christison in 1909, he reported a central platform 44 feet (c.13.4m) in diameter surrounded by a ditch 14 (c.4.26m) feet wide by 6 feet (c.1.83m) deep with an external bank 18 feet (c.5.48m) across; an entrance causeway of uncut earth 6 feet (c.m) wide lay on the south side facing the road. The platform contained a centrally-placed rectangular structure measuring 11 x 9 feet (c.3.35 x 2.74m), identified by four post-holes each 1½ ft. wide by 2 ft. deep (c.0.45 x 0.60m), which contained the corner-posts of a timber watch-tower.

This watch-tower along with others spaced almost uniformly along the Roman military road into the north-east formed an early Roman frontier along the Gask Ridge in Tayside.

References for Witch Knowe

  • Topography of Roman Scotland North of the Antonine Wall by O.G.S. Crawford (Cambridge 1949).
  • Canmore ID 25991

Map References for Witch Knowe

NGRef: NN9919 OSMap: LR58

Roman Roads near Witch Knowe

W (0.5) to Gask Hovse (Tayside) E (0.5) to Mossside (Tayside)

Sites near Witch Knowe Signal Station