Cramond Roman Fort

Cramond Roman Fort was established around AD 140 at the River Almond's mouth on the Forth, where there was probably a natural harbour. It was active during building of the Antonine Wall and may have formed part of a chain of Lothian forts with Carriden and Inveresk. The first occupation ended around AD 170 when Roman forces withdrew south to Hadrian's Wall.

The fort was reoccupied and enlarged between about AD 208 and 214 during Septimius Severus's final major campaign in Scotland. A civilian settlement seems to have existed outside the fort, and some native occupation may have continued into the fifth century. The Roman road leading to the fort had four phases of construction or modification during the Antonine and Severan periods and continued in use into the seventeenth or eighteenth century.

Finds include altars, a centurial stone of Legio II Augusta and a silver sword pendant. The Cramond Lioness, recovered from the River Almond's mouth in 1997, shows a lioness devouring a male figure and probably belonged to a tomb monument for an important Roman officer or dignitary. The site also overlies or stands beside Mesolithic activity, adding a much earlier layer to the landscape.

The fort is sub-rectangular, defended by ramparts and ditches enclosing just under five acres, with a civilian settlement attached. Only the north-eastern and south-eastern sectors survive above the archaeology; the remainder lies beneath modern housing and roads. The scheduled area is irregular, measuring at most 425 metres north-west to south-east by 435 metres north-east to south-west.

Excavation has dated construction to around AD 140, in the Antonine period, with re-occupation later in the same period and again under Severus in the early third century. Civilian re-use of the fort continued afterwards, up to the fourth century. The civil settlement lay beyond the northern and eastern ramparts and has produced evidence of industry as well as domestic life, including leather-working. Coins of the first century AD suggest some Agricolan-period activity, but excavation has so far failed to prove an Agricolan origin for the fort itself.

The site was first scheduled on 11 August 1965 and rescheduled on 21 January 1998 to cover the full extent of the archaeology as then known, taking in the results of twenty years of excavation. Cramond House and Tower, the church, manse, church hall and burial ground all stand within the boundary and are expressly excluded from the designation.