Hidden behind a wall on the sharp double bend on the A822, north of the village of Braco, Ardoch fort is under the care of Historic Scotland. Its secluded situation and the fact that it is not at all signposted almost suggests that visitors are not particularly welcome.
A squeeze through the gate in the wall and a scramble up the steep slope laid before us the remains of successive Roman occupations. In the bleakness that is Perthshire in March, we wondered aloud just how the men of the 'cohors 1 Hispanorum', who were recruited from Spain and stationed here coped with the land, the climate and the warlike natives.
Ardoch Fort is considered to be one of the best preserved earthworks relating to the Roman army in Europe. The most dramatic feature remaining is, undoubtedly, the defensive earthworks to the north and east sides of the fort. (See picture)
These five ditches are about six feet deep and clearly face the area where greatest threat was expected from the native Caledonians. Helen, dwarfed in the accompanying photograph, gives some idea of the formidable size of this structure. The sites of the four gates are readily discernable. The bulk of the fort would have been built of turf and timber although a stone barrack block was excavated in the dig of 1897.
On the main site two distinct phases of development have been identified one reflecting the first century fort and the other the second century one.
Intermittently occupied somewhere between the years 142 and 158 Ardoch Fort was part of the Roman Empire's most northerly reaches. The above dates reflect the time when continuous occupancy of the fort was undertaken. The immediate area was, however, used in earlier years to provide temporary quarters for the invading Roman army.
The famous Roman Governor Agricola who was charged, in the year 77, with the task of governing Britain carried out seven campaigns... two of these against the Caledonians. We know a fair amount about these campaigns because Tacitus, the Roman author, was Agricola's son-in-law and he later wrote, albeit from a rather biased Roman viewpoint, of his father-in-law's campaigns.
From Tacitus we understand that the army marched north and, each night, set up temporary camps. The early Ardoch camps appear to have been of this nature.
Clearly the Roman army found it difficult to subdue the Caledonians because, about ten years later, they withdrew from central Scotland and established their frontier in the area of the Tyne/Solway line where around 120 AD they built Hadrians Wall.
Hadrian died in 138 and his successor, Antoninus Pius, once again decided to conquor the Caledonians and thereby push the boundary of the Roman Empire north. He duly abandoned Hadrian,s Wall and built the Antonine Wall stretching across central Scotland from the Forth to the Clyde. Subsequently the Romans abandoned the Antonine Wall and again moved to Hadrians Wall. Once more they failed to subdue the Caledonians.
The site lacks any facilities such as information boards, maps or diagrams and is clearly not considered by 'Historic Scotland' as having any potential as a serious visitor attraction or they are afraid that the site will be damaged. This is sad as it is part of our ancient heritage and fits well into the Roman invasion story.
After walking all round the site we took ourselves off to the Toll House coffee shop a couple of hundred yards away on the B827. There we thawed out, recharged the batteries and purchased a small brochure about the Fort. Had we known about this it would have been better if we had purchased the brochure before our visit to the fort.