Burnswark Hill

Long before any Roman set foot in the area, the hill was a place of the dead and then of settlement. A Bronze Age burial cairn was raised on its summit, and in the Iron Age a hillfort enclosing some 7 hectares was built there, its ramparts sheltering a cluster of round houses. The flat basalt top, formed from lava some 300 million years old, commanded the western route northwards into Caledonia.

After the death of the Emperor Hadrian, Antoninus Pius took the throne and moved quickly to expand the empire beyond the limits his predecessor had set. Following the defeat of the Brigantes in 139, the governor of Britannia, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, was ordered to march north of Hadrian's Wall and conquer the Caledonian Lowlands, home to the Otadini, Selgovae, Damnonii and Novantae. Urbicus, a native of Tiddis in modern Algeria, had earlier earned the highest military honours, the corona aurea and the hasta pura, for his part in crushing the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Between 139 and 140 Urbicus moved three legions into position, drawing supply routes from Coria and Bremenium and bringing up the Legio II Augusta from Caerleon, the Legio VI Victrix from Eboracum and the Legio XX Valeria Victrix from Deva Victrix, a force of at least 16,500 men. The Selgovae of present-day Kirkcudbrightshire and Dumfriesshire, immediately north-west of Hadrian's Wall, were among the first of the tribes to face these legions, alongside the Otadini.

Warriors gathered at the ruined hillfort of Burnswark, which guarded the western approach into Caledonia. The Roman forces did not feel able to storm the position outright, and instead set up two substantial camps to north and south, effectively isolating the fort. These were fortifications built for a siege rather than a few days' occupation, capable of housing around 6,000 soldiers, while the defenders opposing them may also have numbered in the thousands, armed for the most part with swords, spears and shields against Roman slingers, archers, siege artillery and discipline.

The bombardment that followed, dated to about 140, left its trace across the ground. Hundreds of lead sling bullets fell along the south-eastern side where the fort's main entrances lay, with a smaller scatter along the facing side of the southern camp where the slingers likely stood. Iron arrowheads and ballista balls came down on the same slope, and just outside the southern camp three large outworks known as 'The Three Brethren', about 3.5 metres high and 15 metres across, may have carried mounted ballistae. The pattern fits a carefully prepared barrage meant to suppress resistance while soldiers advanced uphill to close-quarters fighting, in which few defenders could have escaped death or enslavement.

The campaign at Burnswark was likely one of many battles in the conquest of the Caledonian Lowlands. By 142 the Romans had pacified the whole area and pushed the frontier north to the newly built Antonine Wall. Near the fort of Blatobulgium at modern Birrens, finds include one of Britain's largest Victory inscriptions, dedicated to Antoninus Pius, together with rare inscriptions by military architecti whose skills would have included building and maintaining siege artillery.

The hill saw one further moment on the historical record centuries later. In November 1542 James V of Scotland rode from Lochmaben Castle to Burnswark Hill to watch fires set by the Scottish army. On learning of the defeat at the battle of Solway Moss, he turned back and returned to Stirling Castle.