Balmuildy is the site of a

Roman fort ''Castra'' () is a Latin term used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire for a military 'camp', and ''castrum'' () for a 'fort'. Either could refer to a building or plot of land, used as a fortified military base.. Included is a discuss ...

on the

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall () was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is one of only two forts on the Antonine Wall to have been found with stone ramparts; the other is

Castlecary Castlecary () is a small historic village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, directly adjacent to the border with Falkirk Council, Falkirk. It has long been associated with infrastructure, being adjacent to Red Burn, a bridged river, a Castra, Roma ...

. A digital reconstruction of the fort has been created.

Location

The fort is located in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, west of

Bishopbriggs Bishopbriggs (; ) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the northern fringe of Greater Glasgow, approximately from the Glasgow city centre, city centre. Shires of Scotland, Historically in Lanarkshire, the area was once part of ...

and east of

Bearsden Bearsden ( ) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the northwestern fringe of Greater Glasgow, approximately from the Glasgow city centre, city centre. The Roman Empire, Roman Antonine Wall runs through the town, and the remains of ...

, south of the

River Kelvin The River Kelvin () is a tributary of the River Clyde in northern and northeastern Glasgow, Scotland. It rises on the moor south east of the village of Banton, Scotland, Banton, east of Kilsyth. At almost long, it initially flows south to D ...

and north of the

Forth and Clyde Canal The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. This allow ...

. The fort was just south of the River Kelvin and north-west of Easter Balmuildy Farm which locates it within Glasgow City Council's borders, close to

East Dunbartonshire East Dunbartonshire (; , ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders Glasgow City Council Area to the south, North Lanarkshire to the east, Stirling (council area), Stirling to the north, and West Dunbartonshire to the west. East ...

to the east. Its neighbouring forts are Bearsden to the west and

Cadder Cadder (Scottish Gaelic: ''Coille Dobhair'') is a district of the town of Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is located 7 km north of Glasgow city centre, 0.5 km south of the River Kelvin, and approximately 1.5 km nor ...

to the east although there are intermediate fortlets at Summerston to the west and

Wilderness Plantation Wilderness Plantation was the site of a Roman fortlet on the Antonine Wall in Scotland. The line of the Antonine Wall runs roughly parallel between the River Kelvin to the north and the Forth and Clyde Canal to the south. The site, like sever ...

to the east. See map below for details.

Context

Balmuildy ''Castro'' was constructed between 142 and 154AD at the order of Roman Emperor

Antoninus Pius Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held var ...

Quintus Lollius Urbicus Quintus Lollius Urbicus was a Berber governor of Roman Britain between the years 139 and 142, during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. He is named in the ''Historia Augusta'', although it is not entirely historical, and his name appears ...

, governor of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

at the time, initially supervised the effort. It was one of sixteen forts built to support the

, with small fortlets between them; troop movement was facilitated by a road linking all the sites known as the Military Way. Antoninus Pius never visited Britain, whereas his predecessor

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

did. Pressure from the

Caledonians The Caledonians (; or '; , ''Kalēdōnes'') or the Caledonian Confederacy were a Brittonic-speaking (Celtic) tribal confederacy in what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Greek form of the tribal name gave rise to the ...

may have led Antoninus to send the empire's troops further north. The wall, and Balmuildy, was abandoned only eight years after completion, and the garrisons relocated back to Hadrian's Wall. In 208 Emperor

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

re-established legions at the wall and ordered repairs; this has led to the wall being referred to as the Severan Wall. The occupation ended a few years later, and the wall was not occupied again. Most Roman forts along the wall held garrisons of around 500 men. Larger forts like

and Birrens had a nominal cohort of 1,000 men but probably sheltered women and children as well, although the troops were not allowed to marry. It is likely that there were large communities of civilians around the site.

Descriptions and finds

Romanwallinscotl00macduoft raw 0421Lollius

The site was excavated by Steuart Napier Miller who wrote about it in his 1922 volume: ''The Roman fort at Balmuildy (Summerston, near Glasgow) on the Antonine Wall''. Sir George Macdonald also described the site in the 1934 in ''The Roman wall in Scotland''. The related site of Summerston was written about by J. M. Davidson in 1937. An altar to

Fortuna Fortuna (, equivalent to the Greek mythology, Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Religion in ancient Rome, Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular thr ...

was found in one of the fort's bath houses similar to the one found at Castlecary. There was also an altar dedicated to Mars found along with some statues. A dedication to a building by the Second Legion was found although the stone had been repurposed by farmers. Fragments of another stone by the same legion were also discovered. Part has been scanned and a video produced. All of these finds are now in the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. Other discoveries include: a door hinge plate, a terracotta bath house drainpipe, a holdfast to stick tiles to the bath house wall, a perfume pot, an unguent pot, a Samian ware platter, and a clay cheese press. An oil lamp and a surgical probe have also been scanned to video. File:Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0147.png, Samian ware File:Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0177.png, unglazed ware File:Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0221.png, wee objects File:Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0233.png, stone objects File:Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0239.png, leather footwear

References

{{coord missing, Glasgow Forts of the Antonine Wall Areas of Glasgow