Sunday, March 27, 2011

Bar Hill, Roman Fort

Our last stop of the day was another area of the Antonine Wall, a Roman fort. I feel that in all the fieldtrips, the last site always suffers the most, as by that point everyone is tired, and the evening is coming on, so it is usually colder too, and people just want to go back to the bus. This may have been the case, but notwithstanding, it was a very interesting spot, more so than the other area of the Antonine Wall we saw last semester. Here there were the stone foundations of the buildings: the headquarters, the store-rooms, and the baths. There was also a well, of gigantic and terrifying depth. We were all amazed when we were told what all was pulled out of the well when this area was being excavated in 1906 (by a fellow named MacDonald, who taught lectures in Greek at Glasgow University!). Such things as: leather shoes, jewellery, tools, stone work (such as the many distance slabs erected by the workers on the wall) and 61 feet worth of broken up columns from the courtyard of the headquarters!
The foundations of the headquarters.


The bath house.

Sitting on the heating ducts that ran beneath the floors.

On the walk back to the bus.

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