A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

orioolaV campaigns. 19
been almost insuperuble to Miiy other commander vanished before tlie
genius and perseverance of Agricola, wlio opened a passage tliroiigh
the whole of this wood and marsh by felling the trees which obstructed
the progress of his army, and making a causeway of the trunks so cut
down across the morass, lie marched along the shore with part of Ids
army, leaving the estuary of Loclier and Caerlaverock on his left, and
encamped against U.vclhiin the chief town of the Selgova). From this
l)Osition he continued his march, and arrived at length at the
Caerbaiitorigum of Ptolemy, the Diuramore Castle of modern maps,
one of the largest and strongest fortresses of the Selgova;. The traces
of Agricola's route through the country of the Novantcs which was not
so well fortified as that of the Selgovaj cannot be so easily defined.
Having accomplished the subjugation of these two tribes, Agricola
made preparations for his next campaign which he was to open beyond
the Forth in the summer of eighty-tliree. He began hy surveying
the coasts and sounding the harbours, on the north side of the Forlli
l>y means of his fleet. As, according to Tacitus, the country beyond
the Fortii was the great object of Agricola ; and as the hitter appears
to have been aware of tlie formidable resistance which had been pre-
pared for iiira by the Caledonians, if he should attempt to cross the
estuary, it is supposed, with every appearance of probability, that he employed
his fleet in transporting his army across the Forth from as conve
nieut a station as he could select without being perceived by the enemy
and it is certain that the seamen were frequently mixed with the cavaliy
and infantry in the same camp after Agricola arrived among the Horestii.
The oiFensive operations of the sixth campaign were commenced by thp
Caledonian Britons w-lio, from the liigher country, made afurious attack
on the Transforthan fortifications, which so alarmed some of Agricola's
officers, who were afraid of being cut off from a retreat, that they advised
their general to recross the Forth without delay; but Agricola resisted this
advice and made preparations for the attack which he expected would
soon be made upon his army. In pursuance of a plan which he had
formed he disposed his army in three divisions. The position which
his army occupied appears to have been near Carnock on the site ot
two farms appropriately known by the names of East Camp and West
Camp wliere are still to be traced the remains of two military stations
From this position the Roman general pushed forward the ninth legion
to Loch Ore about two miles southward from Loch Leven, with two
ranges of hills in front, the Cleish range on their left, and Biimarty hill
on their right. The camp here formed was situated on the north side
of Loch f)re, less than half a mile south-west from Loch Ore house in
the parish of Ballingry in Fife. Its form was nearly square and its
total circumference was about two thousand and twenty feet, and it was
s'lrroimded by three rows of ditches and as many ramparts of earth
and stone. Another division of the army encamped it is said near
Dunearn-hill, about a mile distant from Burntisland, near which hill are
still to be seen the remains of a strength called Ayricola's Camp.
,