Antonine Wall

The Antonine Wall is a stone and turf fortification, built by the Romans across what is now the central belt of Scotland. It is also known sometimes as Graham's Dyke, this name is locally explained as a legend of a victorious assault on the defences by one Robert Graeme.

Construction

Construction of the Antonine Wall began in 142, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, by Quintus Lollius Urbicus and was completed in 144. The wall stretches 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the Firth of Clyde to Bo'ness, Falkirk, on the Firth of Forth. The wall was intended to replace Hadrian's Wall 160 km (100 miles) to the south, as the frontier of Britannia, but while the Romans did establish temporary forts and camps north of the wall, they did not conquer the Caledonians, and the Antonine Wall suffered many attacks. The Romans called the land north of the wall Caledonia, though in some contexts the term may mean the area north of Hadrian's Wall.

The Antonine Wall was inferior to Hadrian's Wall in terms of scale and construction, but it was still an impressive achievement, considering that it was completed in only two years, at the northern edge of the Roman empire in what they perceived as a cold and hostile land. The wall was typically an earth bank, about four metres high, with a wide ditch on the north side, and a military way or road on the south. The Romans initially planned to build forts every six miles, but this was soon revised to every two miles, resulting in a total of 19 forts along the wall. The best preserved but also one of the smallest forts is Rough Castle Fort.

Wall abandoned

The wall was abandoned after only twenty years, when the Roman legions withdrew to Hadrian's Wall in 164, and over time reached an accommodation with the Brythonic tribes of the area who they fostered as the buffer states which would later become "The Old North". After a series of attacks in 197, Emperor Septimius Severus arrived in Scotland in 208 to secure the frontier, and repaired parts of the wall. Although this re-occupation only lasted a few years, the wall is sometimes referred to (by later Roman historians) as the Severan Wall.

Although most of the wall has been destroyed over time, sections of the wall can still be seen in Bearsden, Kirkintilloch, Twechar, Croy, Falkirk and Polmont.

It is a putative World Heritage Site [1].

Grim's dyke

In medieval histories, such as the chronicles of John of Fordun, the wall is called Gryme's dyke. Fordun says that the name came from the grandfather of the imaginary king Eugenius son of Farquahar. This was corrupted into Graham's dyke—a name still found in Bo'ness at the wall's eastern end—and then linked with Clan Graham.

This name is the same one found as Grim's Ditch several times in England in connection with early ramparts: for example, near Wallingford in south Oxfordshire or between Berkhampstead (Herts) and Bradenham (Bucks).

Grim is presumed to be a byname for Odin or Wode, who might be credited with the wish to build earthworks in unreasonably short periods of time. By antiquaries the Graham's Dyke is usually styled the Wall of Pius or the Antonine Vallum, after the emperor Antoninus Pius, in whose reign it was constructed.

In a Scottish context, Grim is also found as a variant of the name Giric, a name borne by an obscure king Giric mac Dúngail of the late 9th century, to whom many great victories were attributed in medieval times.

World Heritage Status

The UK government's nomination of the Antonine Wall for World Heritage status to the international conservation body Unesco was announced in late January 2007.

References

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