CASTLEDYKES
Lanarkshire, Scotland.
On a
plateau overlooking the river Clyde on the S, 5 km E
of Lanark. Known as a Roman site as early as the 18th
c., Castledykes has been proved by recent excavatlon
to have been occupied during the late 1st c. A.D. as a
result of Agricola's advance into Scotland, and again in
the 2d c. as a major fort in the network of roads and
forts supporting the Antonine Wall.
The earliest Roman structure was a large temporary
enclosure which was replaced by a permanent fort in
the late 1st c. This fort had a massive turf rampart enclosing ca. 2.6 ha, an elaborate ditch system, and internal
buildings of timber.
After an interval of at least 40 years S Scotland was
reoccupied by the Romans and the rampart at Castledykes was given a new front, set on a stone base laid
partly over the innermost pre-Antonine ditch, which had
been filled in. The internal area of the Antonine fort
remained the same, but its buildings were of stone; this
fort had at least two periods of occupation. On the plateau ca. 60 m E of the fort there was an Antonine enclosure, either a construction camp or an annex to the fort.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Robertson,
The Roman Fort at Castledykes (1964).
A. S. ROBERTSON
