LYNE
Peeblesshire, Scotland.
An auxiliary
fort that guarded the Roman road from Trimontium to
Castledykes, in a bend of the Lyne Water, 6 km W of
Peebles. Recent reconsideration of the pottery found during excavations in 1900 and 1959-63 has indicated that
it was built ca. A.D. 140, at the time of the Antonine advance into Scotland. Substantial remains of the defenses,
a turf rampart and up to three ditches, are visible, as
well as the sites of three of the four gates. The size of
the fort, 2.2 ha, is appropriate for a cohors milliaria
equitata. The principal buildings were of stone, the barracks and stables of timber, and there were large annexes
on both the N and S sides. Water was brought to the fort
by an aqueduct and distributed into wood-lined tanks sunk
in the ground.
Air photography has revealed several other Roman
works in the vicinity, of which no traces survive above
ground. Two of them, a fortlet and a temporary camp of
19.6 ha, are on the same side of the river as Lyne fort;
another fort of 1.4 ha is on the opposite bank, at Easter
Happrew. Examination of the latter in 1956 showed that
it was built in the late 1st c. A.D., probably during the
Agricolan invasion of Scotland. The finds from both forts
are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Inventory of the Ancient & Historical
Monuments of Peeblesshire 1 (1967) 169-75;
Proc. Soc.
Ant. Scotland 35 (1901) 154-86; 90 (1956) 93-101; 95
(1961) 208-18.
K. A. STEER
