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Croy Hill

EngvarB from May 2018Forts of the Antonine Wall
Antonine Wall at Croy Hill geograph.org.uk 788015
Antonine Wall at Croy Hill geograph.org.uk 788015

Croy Hill was a Roman fort, fortlet, and probable temporary camp on the Antonine Wall, near Croy, to the north east of the village in Scotland. Two communication platforms known as ‘expansions’ can be seen to the west of the fortlet. Alexander Park excavated the site in 1890-1891. Sir George Macdonald wrote about his excavation of the site which occurred in 1920, 1931, and 1935. At Croy Hill, the ditch in front of the rampart was not excavated by the Romans. It is likely that hard basalt and dolerite of the hill was virtually impossible to shape with Roman tools. This is the only place along the Wall where the ditch wasn't dug. There is a bath house just outside one fort. A video reconstruction of the site has been produced.At Croy Hill three religious objects have been found: one, as fragments of a relief of Jupiter Dolichenus; a second, an altar dedicated to Nymphs; and a third, identified as an altar to Mars. Other artefacts found include a bronze arm purse, a storage jar filled with ashes, and a fragment of "face mask" jar. These items are now kept in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow along with others like the altar found at Castlecary. Only four coins have been discovered near the fort and an axe was also found near the hill. A gravestone was discovered; it shows a soldier with other men, perhaps his sons, at his side. It has been scanned and a video produced. Croy hill's neighbouring forts were Barr Hill to the west and Westerwood to the east. The larger Roman forts of which this was not one had a nominal cohort of 1000 men but probably sheltered women and children as well although the troops were not allowed to marry. There is likely too to have been large communities of civilians around the site.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Croy Hill (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Croy Hill
Forth and Clyde Canal Towpath,

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Latitude Longitude
N 55.9651 ° E -4.0308 °
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Croy Hill Fort

Forth and Clyde Canal Towpath
G65 0PZ , South Barrwood
Scotland, United Kingdom
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Antonine Wall at Croy Hill geograph.org.uk 788015
Antonine Wall at Croy Hill geograph.org.uk 788015
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Craigmarloch
Craigmarloch

Craigmarloch is a private residential area of the town of Cumbernauld in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the last such area that the Cumbernauld Development Corporation (CDC) laid out and began to construct. The area is designed to be like a village, with features such as: a village green, a main street, focal points, gateways, water features and recreational and community facilities. The responsibility for the development of the area passed from the CDC to North Lanarkshire Council in 1996. The area was known as Auchinbee, and was built on the lands of the Auchinbee Farm. The farm house has been developed into a nursery. The name Craigmarloch, was taken from an area to the north close to Kilsyth and adjacent to the Forth and Clyde Canal, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) away. The older site was a stop on the canal.Around the main residential area is the Dullatur Golf Course with two main courses. The area also has Roman links as an ancient Roman Path runs between the Joint Schools Campus and the Craighalbert Centre. The area is very well connected to the rest of Scotland and the UK by being only a short drive from all of the major motorway networks. Croy train station only a short walk or drive away, allows a very speedy and direct commute into Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Stirling as well as many other destinations. The frequency of the trains and volume of car parking available means Cumbernauld North is a possible commuting location.

Dullatur
Dullatur

Dullatur is a village (population 720 (est. 2012)) near Cumbernauld, Scotland. Like Condorrat, Castlecary and Luggiebank, it predates the new town of Cumbernauld, and of those only Condorrat was officially included in the designated area. Its name is anglicised from the Gaelic Dubh Leitir, which means "dark slope". The route of the Antonine Wall passes just to the north of Dullatur. Two Roman temporary marching camps were located at Dullatur between the forts at Croy Hill and Westerwood. The camps have been excavated several times by archaeologists following aerial photography and proposed housebuilding. Both camps have now been built over, and no visible remains can be seen on the ground today. Digital reconstructions of the larger and the smaller of the camps have been created. When building the nearby Forth and Clyde Canal in the 18th century a number of finds were made in Dullatur Bog. Thomas Watson recorded: "a number of swords, pistols, and other weapons were dug out; also the bodies of men and horses, and what seems somewhat marvellous, a trooper, completely armed, and seated on his horse, in the exact posture in which he had perished." It was supposed that the man was escaping the Battle of Kilsyth which is due north of Dullatur Bog.The development of the village owed much to the creation of the Glasgow-Edinburgh railway line, with a station sited in Dullatur in 1842 to encourage commuters to settle there. Several grand villas were built as part of the original development, two of which were designed by the architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson. The make-up of the village was of the higher socio-economic class, and early recreational developments included Dullatur Golf Club and lawn-tennis clubs, both of which persist to the present day. Dullatur railway station is now closed but the village still serves as a commuter settlement, with a number of private properties being built over the years.