Vol 6 - Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian ...

Transactions. 5Donations.—Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Societyand of the Epping Forest Field Club.Mr James Lennox submitted the audited balance-sheet forthe -precedingSession, which was unanimously adopted, and theTreasurer was thanked for his honorary services.Communications.I. A Note on the Roman Camp at Springfield Hill, Dimscore. ByJ. Callander, M.D.The height on Springfield Hill Farm, Dunscore, on which theRoman Camp is situated, is neai'ly oblong in shape. Its longerdiameter, roughly speaking, runs nearly from east to west. Onits north, west, and south sides it is separated from surroundingheights by wide and deep hollows. On its east side it is joined bya narrow sloping neck of land to the cultivated fields which trendaway to the level holms far below. The surface of its summit islevel, and measures about five thousand square yards. It isdistant about two hundred yards from the public road leading overthe hill from Dunscore Village to Dunscore Old Churchyard, andabout the same distance from Si^ringfield Hill farm house. It wasfor a cantonment in time of peace, and as a post of observation,we believe, that the Camp on Springfield Hill was constructedabout the year A.D. 82. It marks not a position taken up by anarmy on active service in the field, but a permanent station heldby a small force in time of peace.Several facts may be mentionedwhich appear to give support to this theory. The Camp is situatednear to the line ofa Roman road, which ran from the southeastin the direction of the north-west, some vestiges of whichwere discovered and removed a few years ago.It is far too smallto have afforded accommodation to any considerable force. If aEoman army of twenty thousand men required an area of fourhundred and ninetythousand square yards on which to constructits camp, as we know it did, the Springfield Hill Camp, with itsavailable area of five thousand square yards, could only haveaccommodated a detachment of from two hundred to two hundredand twenty men. Water must have been brought from somedistance to Springfield Hill. A small force in the field wouldnever have entrenched itself in a position where an active anddetermined foe could easily have cut it off from its water suj^ijly.The Camp is not fortified in the manner in which a Roman army