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Publication Account

Date 17 December 2011

Event ID 923491

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/923491

The camp of Raedykes was first recorded by Maitland (1757: 202) and planned by George Brown and Barclay of Urie in 1778 (Barclay 1792; Roy 1793: Pl. L). It was the most northerly known for some time, and became a favoured site for the battle of Mons Graupius, with Kempstone Hill, 4km to the east, one potential location of the battle (Barclay 1792). Melville, however, did not favour the site for the battle (Gough’s edition of Camden’s Britannia 1790: iii, 416; Macdonald 1916: 319). It is worth noting that John Stuart thought that the camp was the Caledonian camp before the battle, being ‘an awkward imitation’ of the Roman one (1831: 300). Douglas notes that the tradition of the country was that a Scottish army lay in the camp, to oppose a Danish one encamped on the Links of Arduthie (1792: 261). Macdonald 1916 provides a useful summary of the historical sources for the site.

The camp is irregular in shape, and encloses Garrison Hill, with height-differences of over 40m between the highest and lowest points enclosed. It commands good views of the surrounding countryside, particularly to the sea at Stonehaven some 5km to the south-east, and is sited on the north side of the Cowton Burn, a tributary of the Cowie Water.

The camp measures around 663m from NNW to SSE by a maximum of 590m transversely and encloses 38.9ha (96 acres), if the projected line of the north-west corner is correct (having been taken from earlier sources).

The camp remains in a remarkable state of preservation, with the rampart and ditch clearly visible for much of the perimeter, owing to the site lying mostly under rough and improved pasture. At various points, the rampart measures up to 5.1m in width and 0.8m in height, with a 0.9m berm before the ditch, which measures up to 4.3m in width and 1.3m in depth. Tumbled stone in the ditch on the ENE side has led to suggestions that it may have been rock-cut in places, but this has not been confirmed. Entrance gaps with tituli (surviving as low swellings) are visible in the centre of the NNW side where the rampart angle changes – two on the ENE side and another in the SSE side; a further entrance gap is visible at a change of alignment in the southern part of the west side.

Excavations by Macdonald in 1914 identified that the ditch was V-shaped, about 4.5m in width and 2.1m in depth, faced with puddled clay up to 5cm in thickness, although was smaller elsewhere on the perimeter (Macdonald 1916: 332–4). He also suggested that where the ditch was smaller, the rampart was also smaller. Two of the tituli were recorded, the ditch of one measuring 18.6m in length by 3.4m in width and 1.5m in depth, the ditch of the other only 11.6m in length by 3.8m in width and 1.4m in depth (1916: 337). Historical finds from Raedykes include two Roman hastae (Douglas 1782: 261), a small hoop or ring of iron (Stuart 1831: 301) and a complete wheel (NSA 1845: xi Kincardine, 249–50).

A linear earthwork located some 230m south of the camp has been presumed to also be Roman in date and is associated with the camp as an additional defensive earthwork (Crawford 1949: 108–10; RCAHMS: NO 88 NW 23). However, this earthwork is of a rather different character and much larger in scale. It is also questionable whether the camp would have needed an additional outwork at this point. A medieval or post-medieval date for this feature seems more likely.

R H Jones.

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