Castlecary

Castlecary, like many other settlements in the area, is steeped in the Roman history of Scotland. The route of the Antonine Wall passes through to the village. Around 80 AD, a Roman camp was built at Castlecary. It may have been during governor Agricola’s fourth campaign season. Most Roman forts along the wall held garrisons of around 500 men. Larger forts like Castlecary and Birrens 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. In 1769, workmen seeking materials for the Forth and Clyde Canal, found 8 apartments along with the remains of an L-shaped, hypocausted, bathhouse in the south-east section of the fort. Inside the walls other objects such as human bones, pottery shards and boars’ tusks were discovered. Historically, the site was not handled with much respect to archaeology as even gunpowder was used at the fort to improve land for agriculture. It was, however, excavated sympathetically in 1902.