Posted on 11/07/2023 8:10:03 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A 2000-year-old ancient Roman road was unearthed in Old Inn Cottage's garden near Stirling, Scotland. The site is located a few miles away from Stirling’s city center, next to the Old Stirling Bridge.
It has been described as the most important road in Scottish history, the cobbled road was built by the Roman armies of General Julius Agricola in the 1st century AD and would have connected to a ford that crossed the River Forth.
The road and the crossing would have been used again by the Romans in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD as units launched fresh invasions of Scotland under the emperors [Antoninus Pius] and [Septimius Severus].
The road, city officials said Thursday, was used by centuries of leaders, including the real Macbeth. Historical figures who used the road included Scottish kings such as Macbeth and Robert the Bruce and English leaders Henry VIII, William the Conqueror and Oliver Cromwell. William Wallace of "Braveheart" fame also used the road, Stirling officials said.
Many important historical figures of Scottish and British history used the road for military campaigns because of the strategic importance of crossing River Forth and reaching the Highlands, but also because of its proximity to Stirling, Scotland's former capital city...
What archaeologists found was the worn-down and eroded surface of the road, which was not maintained after the Roman period.
(Excerpt) Read more at arkeonews.net ...
I find it fishy that one would resort to fighting to filch a fifth to ford the forth of Forth, especially in Scotland, where the fine art of fermenting fired grains is foremost................
Haggis you’re right.
Thx for posting.
Clearly from Tudor times. /rimshot
My pleasure!
question: WHY, would it have gone out of use???
The Romans left Britain early in the 5th century (409 AD), so maintenance ceased, and that assumes that they’d maintained it after Septimius Severus died of old age and illness at York.
As the article notes, the route continued in use thereafter, but by the 14th century the road had apparently been buried by erosion and whatnot. The ford over the river would have kept the route relevant.
Not exactly: All the claimants were related.
“In the 1050s and early 1060s, William became a contender for the throne of England held by the childless Edward the Confessor, his first cousin once removed. There were other potential claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson, whom Edward named as king on his deathbed in January 1066.”
Edward the Confessor died childless on 5th January 1066, leaving no direct heir to the throne.
Four people all thought they had a legitimate right to be king.
Drawing of the four claimants of the throne:
Edgar Aetheling,
Harold Godwinson,
Harald Hardrada and
William
Harold Godwinson:Earl of Wessex
William:Duke of Normandy
Harald Hardrada:King of Norway
Edgar Atheling:Great-nephew of Edward
The claims that they made were connected to three main factors: family ties, promises made, and political realities.
Are there pictures? I wonder if it’s similar to the stone road on Oak Island, NS…
Although that one is thought to be Portuguese.
ths
that’s where i get confusion, if it was an important enough road to be Roman Built Spec, i’d think it would be a main thoroughfare that wouldn’t go out of use, unless there was a shorter/faster route
There's five bridges stretching across the Firth of Fourth at various locations. Two of them which I saw during a bus tour of the British Isles in 2006 were the rail bridge, which was built in Victorian times, and the road bridge. I watched a program a while back about UK bridges, and it takes the guys who paint the rail bridge a whole year to complete the job. Then once it's completed, they have to start all over again, from the beginning because it's so long and massive.
I wonder if the Romans had any chariot-hitching posts , or Stop-’n-Shops along the way.
I can vouch for that. I ruined a pair of tires during an east coast ice storm in January 1998. I'd driven up from South Carolina, and was forced to stop in Spotsylvania overnight due to freezing rain. The next day the roads were better, until I crossed the state line into Pa., and there was at least 3-4 inches of rutted ice all the way to Lancaster. That's how my tires were destroyed. Everything in Lancaster was closed except the hotels/motels, and because of minus 40 windchill temperatures, my car wouldn't start. I ended up having to stay at the Super 8 a couple of extra days until it warmed up, and AAA could give me a jump. That stay in Lancaster was my first and last experience with rolling blackouts.
It did continue in use, but the road surface gradually got worn, then covered up with soil.
It is the M8 motorway....
[singing] Cruise the M8 Motorway, got my girl by my side...
They’re all my cousins and/or ancestors, as well. :^)
When was Hadrian’s wall built? About the same time?
The siting and route of Hadrian’s Wall was largely determined by the natural landscape. There’s evidence of a wooden palisade and turf barrier that antedates the wall. It was begun under Hadrian (sez here 122 AD). 45 or so years earlier Agricola had built temporary forts in what is now Scotland, and had apparently intended to conquer the whole of the British Isles, but it’s likely that the expense of the campaign exceeded the value of the lands and everything and everyone there. Twenty years after Hadrian’s Wall, the Antonine Wall was built on the order of Antoninus Pius, begun 142 AD. The Romans withdrew to Hadrian’s Wall about 162 AD.
It’s likely that the Caledonian population in the area between the walls either requested help from raids by their none-too-neighborly neighbors to the north, or the Romans saw an opportunity to add a friendly population to the Empire without a lot of trouble. Contrary to the claymore-swingers, there was no Scottish population in Caledonia, and the Romans didn’t build Hadrian’s Wall out of terror of barbarian attacks.
https://freerepublic.com/tag/hadrianswall/index
https://freerepublic.com/tag/antoninewall/index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall#Purpose_of_construction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Julius_Agricola
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4195145/posts?page=14#14
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.