Watling Lodge was a Roman fortlet on the Antonine Wall in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It was located near what is now Lock Sixteen on 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 allowe ...

in Falkirk with neighbouring forts at

Rough Castle Rough Castle Fort is a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall roughly 2 kilometres south east of Bonnybridge near Tamfourhill in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. It is owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Context The Antonine Wall dates fro ...

to the west and Falkirk to the east. There was also a fort at Camelon to the north. There was also a Roman temporary camp found a short distance south of the site.

Description

Watling Lodge has been described as the best preserved stretch of ditch from the Antonine Wall still in existence today. It is situated along Tamfourhill Road, south-west of Falkirk. This stretch is excellently preserved. One of the best overviews of the site is the video of the Bridgeness Slab by Falkirk Council, presented by Geoff Bailey, Keeper of Archeology and Local History at Falkirk Museum, from about 4 minutes 30s. In Falkirk, the site is signposted from the A9 and is accessed from the B816, Tamfourhill Road. There is an information panel fairly close to the top of the wall. The panel shows how the Wall may have looked, and suggests Watling Lodge's place in the grand design of the construction.

Excavation and finds

Sir George Macdonald wrote about the site. A digital reconstruction of the fortlet has been created. A Minecraft model of the site has also been constructed. Many Roman forts along the wall held garrisons of around 500 men. Larger forts like

Castlecary Castlecary () is a small historic village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, directly adjacent to the border with Falkirk. It has long been associated with infrastructure, being adjacent to a bridged river, a Roman fort and roads, a nationwide can ...

and Birrens had a nominal

cohort Cohort or cohortes may refer to: * Cohort (educational group), a group of students working together through the same academic curriculum * Cohort (floating point), a set of different encodings of the same numerical value * Cohort (military unit ...

of 1000 men but probably sheltered women and children as well, although the troops were not allowed to marry. It is likely that large communities of civilians were located around the site.

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Falkirk (council area) Forts of the Antonine Wall Roman fortifications in Scotland