Raeburnfoot
Small Roman fort above the junction of the river Esk and the Rae Burn, 23 km N of Langholm. Recent excavation has shown that for a short time it stood inside a large compound on the W side of a steep scarp above the Esk, during the Antonine advance into Scotland, about the middle of the 2d c. A.D. The fort was defended by a turf rampart ca. 6 m wide, and by two ditches ca. 3 m wide. There were entrances not more than 6 m wide in the N and S sides, on either side of which the two ditches combined into looped ends. The internal buildings were of timber and apparently consisted only of quarters for troops. The internal area was 4 ha.
The outer compound, partly eroded, now measures internally ca. 164 m N-S and ca. 108 m E-W. The rampart, ca. 5.4 m wide, was constructed mainly of clay dug from the accompanying ditch of the same width. The compound, in which no buildings were found, had two entrances, N and S, exactly opposite those of the small fort. Evidently it served as an annex, corral, or wagon park for the small fort.
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. Robertson, “Excavations at Raeburnfoot, 1959-60,” Trans. Dumfriesshire and Galloway Ant. and Nat. Hist. Soc. 39 (1961) 24-49.
A. S. ROBERTSON