Fighting on the frontier

Twenty years ago, during a particularly dry summer, parch marks revealed what seemed to be a huge Roman fort a few hundred metres from the Duke of Buccleuch's extraordinarily grand house, Drumlanrig Castle, in Dumfries. The discovery lay untouched until Time Team took on the challenge to investigate it further.

The Team sought to answer a number of questions. Was it actually a Roman fort? If so, it was one of the most northerly ever found and therefore of special importance to Scotland's history. So when were the Romans there? No finds made previously had given any hint of the date of the structure.

Time Team also wanted to identify the roads leading in and out of the fort. Was there any kind of civilian settlement or other features nearby? And could the Team work out how the Romans made their famous draco, the military standard that made a sound that was said to have struck fear into the hearts of their enemies?

As usual, Time Team had just three days to answer these questions – and possibly change the face of Roman history in Scotland.

Time Trail

The period of Roman rule in Britain, which lasted from 43 AD, when Claudius invaded, to around 410 AD, when the legions were recalled to Rome, has provided Time Team with more sites than any other. These have included some of the most spectacular – including the astonishingly well-preserved mosaics at Dinnington that featured in the 2003 series; and the marvellous villa site at Turkdean. The discovery of this site led to the first ever Time Team Live in 1997, and also spawned this very website. It is also one of only two sites that the Team has visited more than once.

The Drumlanrig dig focused on the site of a previously-unexcavated Roman fort, first revealed by cropmarks during a particularly dry summer. Although the Romans pursued military expeditions into the far north of Scotland, little archaeological evidence has been found of these campaigns and it is unusual to find Roman forts so far north.

For the legionaries posted here, this must have seemed a remote location – but no more so, perhaps, than at other military settlements excavated by Time Team in the past. These have included the Birdoswald fort on Hadrian's Wall and Castleford fort in the north of England. Further information on what life was like for a Roman legionary can be found in The legionaries' lot. Information on many different aspects of Roman life and other Roman-era digs conducted by Time Team can be found in our special section on the Roman occupation.

Now try your hand at the Time Trial quiz to accompany this programme.

Text only