| Summary : The earthwork remains of a Roman temporary camp enclosing an area of 15.6 hectares (38.5 acres) lie on the exposed summit of Foulplay Head at 460 metres above Ordnance Datum, 7 kilometres north of the fort at High Rochester (Bremenium). This site offers the best position for a camp of any size along the line of Dere Street between the camps at Silloans and at Chew Green. It is markedly superior to the site of its neighbour, Featherwood East, with which it may be contemporary. There are excellent views north eastwards to the modern Border, southwards into Redesdale and Eastwards into Coquetdale; only to the south-west is the line of sight limited, by the saddle close to the west corner of the camp, from which the land rises again to Loan Edge, 750 metres away. Despite the advantage of this site, the topography has still put constraints on the layout of the camp. |
More information : [Centred at NT 81350577] CAMP [G.S.] Foulplay Head. (1)
Roman Temporary Camp - Featherwood West. "Its south side measures 1474 ft, its north side 1641 ft, the east side 1188 ft and the west 1200 ft. The shape of the spur on which the camp is placed, overlooking the head of Sills Burn to SW and Cottonshope to NW, compels a departure from the normal rectangle in favour of a trapezoidal plan, while the long sides exhibit minor irregularities, due to errors in alignment. Rampart and ditch each measure 12ft broad, but no angle is sufficiently clear to give an accurate idea of its radius. There are five gates, one in the E, S. and W. sides, and two in the N. side, all protected by traverses. On the S. side, the sixth gate is omitted in marshy ground, and since this omitted gate may be taken to have been a minor porta quintana, the two eastward gates in the long sides must have been the main lateral gates, so that the camp faced Dere Street". [Note - NW, NE, SW and SE should be read respectively for 'North', 'East', 'West' and 'South' in the descriptions of the sides.] (2)
The remains of the camp are situated at approximately 1500 ft above sea level on land sloping gently to the S. The side is covered by rough pasture. (3)
This camp has been re-assessed in connection with RCHME's survey and publication of Roman Camps in England. The following descriptive account is taken from the published text.
The remains of a large camp enclosing an area of 15.6 ha (38.5 acres) lie on the exposed summit of Foulplay Head at 460 m above OD, 7 km N of the fort at High Rochester (Bremenium). This site offers the best position for a camp of any size along the line of Dere Street between the camps at Silloans and at Chew Green. It is markedly superior to the site of its neighbour, Featherwood East, with which it may be contemporary. There are excellent views north eastwards to the modern Border, southwards into Redesdale and Eastwards into Coquetdale; only to the SW is the line of sight limited, by the saddle close to the W corner of the camp, from which the land rises again to Loan Edge, 750 m away. Despite the advantage of this site, the topography has still put constraints on the layout of the camp.
The NE rampart is aligned approximately parallel to Dere Street towards which the camp seems to face, despite there being an extra gateway on the NW side. The NW defences of the camp are positioned on a forward slope so as to command the valley of the Cottonshope Burn without leaving dead ground close at hand. The angle between these two sides, only about sixty-three degrees, dictated a trapezoidal plan. The N angle of the defences is at the highest point and from the almost level N quarter of the camp the land gradually falls away to the S angle some 50 m below. Evidently some difficulty was experienced in laying out the camp for the SW side alone is straight and only the SW parts of the NW and SE sides are parallel.
Minor realignments occur at the NE entrance and at the more northerly of the two gates on the NW. On the SE, adjustments to the line were made at about 180 m from the E angle, at the postulated position of the single gate here, and also at a point 125 m from the S angle. It is significant that both of the NW gates and the SE gates are positioned at local crests.
Along the NE side the rampart has been damaged by a hollow-way that runs behind and partly on top of it, breaching the N angle. Towards the E angle, the bank measures only 0.3 m in height but to the NW of the gate it stands 0.5 m high internally and 0.9 m above the bottom of the ditch. On this side the latter is up to 0.6 m deep. For much of the long NW front, however, the ditch is now represented by little more than a minimal outer scarp; only to the S of the more southerly of the two gates does it attain a depth of as much as 0.4 m. In contrast, the outer scarp of the rampart here, set on a forward slopeis impressive, surviving to a maximum height of 1.7 m; the inner scarp is poorly preserved and nowhere exceeds 0.3 m. On the SW, the defences are fragmentary and are cut and utilised by modern drains. Where best preserved, to the NW of the single gate on this flank, the inner scarp of the rampart is only 0.1 m high, although externally it stands up to 1.4 m. The ditch here is no more than 0.4 m deep. Much of the SE side is also in poor condition, cut by drains and natural gullies. The sections surviving best are on either side of the presumed position of the gate; the rampart still rises up to 1.1 m above the bottom of the ditch here although the inner scarp of the bank and the outer scarp of the ditch are no more than 0.4 m in height and depth respectively.
Each of the five gates seems to have been protected by a traverse. MacLauchlan (1825 39 (4a); 1852, pl vi (4b)) suggested the additional presence of an internal clavicula on the NE. However, although there is a slight scarp in the position that he indicated, such a provision would have been an aberrant arrangement: any internal clavicula should have been on the other side of the gate. The best preserved traverses are the two on the NW, the mound of the N one standing to a height of 1.2 m and that of the S one to a height of 1.0 m. Their ditches are now largely silted up, and the mound guarding the more northerly of the two gates is mutilated at its N end. The traverse on the SW side is only just perceptible on the ground (NMR AP NT 8105/1-2 (4c)) and that on the NE side has been severely mutilated, apparently by a modern military trench. MacLauchlan (1852 39 (see auth 4a); 1852, pl vi (see auth 4b)) thought he could discern a traverse on the SE and marks it on his survey at the poit where a gully cuts through the defences. Slight swellings in the expected position are so gentle as to be unsurveyable. Without excavation, certainty is impossible but a gate here would probably corespond to the more northerly gate on the NW side. Apart from the poor drainage, there is no other topographical reason for the omission of a second gate on the SE flank.
The interior of the camp is featureless except for some modern drains and scattered shell-holes predating 1945 (RAF 106G/UK 628 3060-1 (4d)). The overall plan of the camp and the provision of the extra gate in the W half of the NW side must have made a standard arrangement of the interior almost impossible. Outside the NE flank of the camp the course of Dere Street is not now readily apparent; later hollow-ways near the N corner of the camp seem to have departed slightly from the expected line. Full information is included in the NMR Archive. (4)
Roman camp, 1.05km north of Featherwood, scheduled. (5)
Additional reference. (6) |