So, all we knew when we set out was that the Roman fort was somewhere behind the Falkirk Wheel.  Naturally, that was our starting point.  This is where we met a lovely old local fellow, who I asked directions from.  He pointed us in the right direction, and after he told us that he had never actually been there, I suggested that he should visit as well.  Anyway, we followed a path and eventually came upon this sign.  I just thought it was funny how something almost 2000 years old could be located so near to something as new as the Wheel.  I was more amazed at the fact that someone who had lived there his whole life had never bothered to visit the place.  Naturally, we took the less-beaten path to the fort.  Luckily, we didn't get lost...really!

On our lovely journey down the woodland path, I finally found my heather on a hill.  I was beginning to think the whole heather thing was just a myth, but luckily I was proven wrong.

The fortress itself was quite impressive.  Although the stone structures were long gone, you could still see where the buildings stood.  This was just one of the many fortresses along the Antonine Wall.  The fort was excavated in 1902-3, 1932, and 1957-61.  It was a small fortress, covering only about one acre.  Inscriptions discovered during one of the excavations indicate that the Rough Castle fortress was the base of the Sixth Cohort of Nervians.  These were a people who once lived in Northern France, but were conquered and subjugated by the Romans under Julius Caesar 200 years before the wall and fortress were built.

The northern defences were one of the most distinguishable features of the fortress.  These pits were excavated in 1903 and kept open.  Originally, there were ten rows with about 20 pits each.  They were about three feet deep and held sharpened stakes in their depths.  They were then concealed with brushwood.  The intention of the pits, called lilia by Roman soldiers, was to surprised the unsuspecting attackers, who would fall into them without warning, becoming impaled on the stakes.  These pits were located outside the fort walls, on the northern side of the Antonine Wall.

Here, you can clearly see the ridge that was once the Antonine Wall.  Unfortunately, it is not in nearly as good condition as Hadrian's Wall, far to the south.  The Antonine Wall was built in the 140s AD by the Romans under Antonius Pius.  It ran for forty miles, from Bo'ness on the Forth to Old Kirkpatrick on the Clyde.  The Romans only held it for about 20 years, at which point they retreated to Hadrian's Wall. 

Here's a pic of me standing on one of the few remaining stones from the roman fort and wall.  Farmers just loved carting off stones to build walls of their own...  To keep in the cows, not keep out the barbarians from the north.