Greenloaning Signal Station

Gask Ridge Signal Station

Woodlea  The Greenloaning or Woodlea  Signal Station has long been known from the air and has now been confirmed by excavation as a double ditched Gask series tower. The two ring ditches were of the normal Roman ‘V’ profile but unexpectedly shallow. In all the site is c25m in diameter with an off centre tower founded on four large posts c(4m)sq. Uniquely for a Gask series tower, this had two structural periods. There was a single entrance oriented on the Roman road which runs immediately to the N. No internal rampart or palisades were detected.

The Visible Earthwork of The Roundel [at Greenloaning] is a round cairn, 100 yards in circumference and about 5 or 6 ft. high, around whose edge are planted seventeen beeches. There are many small boulders visible, but no central cist or peristalith of curbstones. The field was under grass in 1936 but showed evident signs of former arable. (Crawford 1949)

The Roman genesis of this earthwork is hinted at by the finding of a stone in 1822 reputedly inscribed with the Latin letters VERSAMEBONOTVO “overturn me to your own advantage”, but there is reason to believe that the provenance of this text is suspect. The possibility that the stone is a forgery has led to its exclusion from the R.I.B., but its existence should nonetheless be noted.

References for Greenloaning

  • Topography of Roman Scotland North of the Antonine Wall by O.G.S. Crawford (Cambridge 1949) pp.26/7;
  • Britannia xviii (1987) p.309; Britannia xxvii (1996) p.396.

Map References for Greenloaning

NGRef: NN8307 OSMap: LR57

Roman Roads near Greenloaning

None identified

Sites near Greenloaning Signal Station