Balmuildy

File:Balmuildy Bridge from the air (geograph 2988005).jpg

The fort is located in Glasgow, west of Bishopbriggs and east of Bearsden, south of the River Kelvin and north of the Forth and Clyde Canal. 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 to the east.{{cite web|title=Balmuildy|url=https://tools.wmflabs.org/wiwosm/osm-on-ol/commons-on-osm.php?zoom=16&lat=055.918200&lon=-004.275400|website=OpenStreetMap|accessdate=18 November 2017}} Its neighbouring forts are Bearsden to the west and Cadder to the east although there are intermediate fortlets at Summerston to the west and Wilderness Plantation to the east.{{cite web|title=OS 25 inch map 1892–1949, with Bing opacity slider|url=http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=55.9187&lon=-4.2646&layers=168&b=1|website=National Library of Scotland|publisher=Ordnance Survey|accessdate=12 October 2017}} See map below for details.

File:Antonine.Wall.Roman.forts.jpg from west to east: Bishopton, Old Kilpatrick, Duntocher, Cleddans, Castlehill, Bearsden, Summerston, Balmuildy, Wilderness Plantation, Cadder, Glasgow Bridge, Kirkintilloch, Auchendavy, Bar Hill, Croy Hill, Westerwood, Castlecary, Seabegs, Rough Castle, Camelon, Watling Lodge, Falkirk, Mumrills, Inveravon, Kinneil, Carriden]]

File:Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0143 Mars.png has been scanned and a video produced.{{cite web|title=Statue of Mars Ultor, Balmuildy|date=11 May 2018 |url=https://vimeo.com/269194099|accessdate=19 May 2018}}]]

Balmuildy Castro was constructed between 142 and 154{{nbsp}}AD at the order of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius.Robertson, Anne S. (1960) The Antonine Wall. Glasgow Archaeological Society. {{ISBN|9780902018143}} p. 7. Quintus Lollius Urbicus, governor of Roman Britain at the time, initially supervised the effort. It was one of sixteen forts built to support the Antonine Wall, 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 did. Pressure from the Caledonians 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 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.{{Cite book|title=The Antonine Wall|last=John)|first=Breeze, David J. (David|date=2006|publisher=John Donald|others=Historic Scotland.|isbn=9780859766555|location=Edinburgh|oclc=65469031}}

Most Roman forts along the wall held garrisons of around 500 men.{{cite web|title=Soldier|url=http://www.antoninewall.org/about-wall/living-wall/soldier|website=Frontiers of the Roman Empire|accessdate=21 October 2017}} Larger forts like Castlecary and Birrens had a nominal cohort of 1,000 men{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=S. N.|title=The Roman Occupation Of South Western Scotland Being Reports Of Excavations And Surveys Carried Out Under The Auspices Of The Glasgow Archaeological Society By John Clarke, J. M. Davidson, Anne S. Robertson, J. K. St. Joseph, Edited For The Society With An Historical Survey By S. N. Miller|date=1952|publisher=Robert Maclehose & Company Limited|location=Glasgow|oclc=561168405|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.227248/2015.227248.The-Roman#page/n243/mode/2up/search/castlecary|accessdate=11 October 2017}} but probably sheltered women and children{{cite web|title=Children|url=http://www.antoninewall.org/about-wall/living-wall/children|website=Frontiers of the Roman Empire|accessdate=21 October 2017}} as well, although the troops were not allowed to marry.{{cite web|title=Roman child's leather shoe|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/4s9CJ-9VSTCcpFR389U8MA|website=A History of the World|publisher=BBC|accessdate=17 October 2017}} It is likely that there were large communities of civilians around the site.{{cite web|last1=Rohl|first1=Darrell, Jesse|title=More than a Roman Monument: A Place-centred Approach to the Long-term History and Archaeology of the Antonine Wall|url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9458/1/DarrellRohl_PhDThesis_2014.pdf?DDD6+#page=245|website=Durham Theses|publisher=Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online ref: 9458|accessdate=14 October 2017}}

{{multiple image |align=centre|direction=horizontal

|image1=Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0135 01 RIB2192a.png|width1=178|caption1=RIB 2192 part a: capricorn's beard

|image2=Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0131 RIB2192bcd.png|width2=292|caption2=parts b, c and d: partial inscription

|image3=Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0135.png|width3=178|caption3=RIB 2192. part e: Legionary bearing vexillum and documents. Video.{{cite web|title=Fragment of a building tablet, Balmuildy|date=11 May 2018 |url=https://vimeo.com/269194190|accessdate=19 May 2018}}

|footer=RIB 2192. Honorific Building Inscription of the Second Legion.{{cite web|title=RIB 2192. Honorific Building Inscription of the Second Legion|url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2192|website=Roman Inscriptions of Britain|accessdate=18 November 2017}}

}}

File:Romanwallinscotl00macduoft raw 0421Lollius.png. George MacDonald calls in no. 27 in the 2nd edition of his book The Roman Wall in Scotland.{{cite book|last1=Macdonald|first1=Sir George|title=The Roman wall in Scotland, by Sir George Macdonald|date=1934|publisher=The Clarendon press|location=Oxford|pages=404–405|edition=2d ed., rev., enl., and in great part rewritten|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3760345;view=2up;seq=460;size=200|accessdate=11 October 2017}} It has been scanned and a video produced.{{cite web|title=Commemorative Stone Fragment of the Second Legion, Balmuildy|date=3 July 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/132532713|accessdate=25 November 2017}}]]

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.{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Steuart Napier|title=The Roman fort at Balmuildy (Summerston, near Glasgow) on the Antonine Wall|date=1922|publisher=Printed for the Glasgow Archaeological Society by Maclehose, Jackson|location=Glasgow|url=https://archive.org/stream/romanfortatbalmu00mill#page/n23/mode/2up|accessdate=19 November 2017}} Sir George Macdonald also described the site in the 1934 in The Roman wall in Scotland.{{cite book|last1=Macdonald|first1=Sir George|title=The Roman wall in Scotland, by Sir George Macdonald|date=1934|publisher=The Clarendon press|location=Oxford|pages=312–324|edition=2d ed., rev., enl., and in great part rewritten|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3760345;view=2up;seq=446|accessdate=11 October 2017}} The related site of Summerston was written about by J. M. Davidson in 1937.{{cite book|last1=Robertson|first1=Anne S.|last2=Miller|first2=S. N.|title=The Roman Occupation Of South Western Scotland|date=1937|publisher=Robert Maclehouse Com.ltd The University Press Glasgow|location=Glasgow|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.227248/2015.227248.The-Roman#page/n113/mode/2up/search/balmuildy|accessdate=19 November 2017}}

An altar to Fortuna was found in one of the fort's bath houses similar to the one found at Castlecary.{{cite web|title=RIB 2189. Altar dedicated to Fortuna|url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2189#RIB|website=Roman Inscriptions of Britain|accessdate=18 November 2017}} There was also an altar dedicated to Mars found along with some statues.{{cite web|title=RIB 2190. Altar dedicated to Mars|url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2190#RIB|website=Roman Inscriptions of Britain|accessdate=18 November 2017}} A dedication to a building by the Second Legion was found although the stone had been repurposed by farmers.{{cite web|title=RIB 2191. Honorific Building Inscription of the Second Legion|url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2191|website=Roman Inscriptions of Britain|accessdate=18 November 2017}} Fragments of another stone by the same legion were also discovered.{{cite web|title=RIB 2192. Honorific Building Inscription of the Second Legion|url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2192|website=Roman Inscriptions of Britain|accessdate=18 November 2017}} Part has been scanned and a video produced.{{cite web|title=Fragment of a building tablet, Balmuildy|date=11 May 2018 |url=https://vimeo.com/269194190|accessdate=19 May 2018}} All of these finds are now in the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.{{cite web|title=building tablet of the Second Legion (in five parts; these 3 pieces – fragments of lettering)|url=http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=archaeology&SearchTerm=F.1922.2|website=Hunterian Museum Archaeology & Ethnography Collections: GLAHM F.6|publisher=University of Glasgow|accessdate=18 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201040704/http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=archaeology&SearchTerm=F.1922.2|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}} Other discoveries include: a door hinge plate,{{cite web|title=Hinge plate for door, Balmuildy|date=28 May 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/129136080|accessdate=25 November 2017}} a terracotta bath house drainpipe,{{cite web|title=Teracotta Drainpipe, Balmuildy|date=28 May 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/129136079|accessdate=25 November 2017}} a holdfast to stick tiles to the bath house wall,{{cite web|title=T-shaped holdfast, Balmuildy|date=28 May 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/129135893|accessdate=25 November 2017}} a perfume pot,{{cite web|title=Perfume pot, Balmuildy|date=7 September 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/138518811|accessdate=25 November 2017}} an unguent pot,{{cite web|title=Unguent Pot, Balmuildy|date=31 August 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/137828561|accessdate=25 November 2017}} a Samian ware platter,{{cite web|title=Samian ware platter, Balmuildy|date=10 August 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/135853711|accessdate=25 November 2017}} and a clay cheese press.{{cite web|title=Cheese Press, Balmuildy|date=3 August 2015 |url=https://vimeo.com/135231985|accessdate=25 November 2017}} An oil lamp{{cite web|title=Oil Lamp, Balmuildy|date=11 May 2018 |url=https://vimeo.com/269199791|accessdate=19 May 2018}} and a surgical probe{{cite web|title=Surgical Probe, Balmuildy|date=11 May 2018 |url=https://vimeo.com/269194300|accessdate=19 May 2018}} 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

{{multiple image |align=centre|direction=horizontal

|image1=Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0137.png|width1=165|caption1=RIB 2189. Altar dedicated to Fortuna.{{cite web|title=RIB 2189. Altar dedicated to Fortuna|url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2189|website=Roman Inscriptions of Britain|accessdate=26 May 2018}}

|image2=Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0143 RIB2190.png|width2=178|caption2=RIB 2190.{{cite web|title=RIB 2190. Altar dedicated to Mars|url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2190|website=Roman Inscriptions of Britain|accessdate=26 May 2018}} Altar dedicated to Mars

|image3=Romanfortatbalmu00mill orig 0141.png|width3=165|caption3=fragment of figure of Victory

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Category:Forts of the Antonine Wall

Category:Areas of Glasgow