Parkneuk Cottage Signal Station

Gask Ridge Signal Station

The westernmost signal station of the Gask frontier lies in Innerpeffray Wood just east of Parkneuk Cottage. The circular ditch and central platform is vaguely discernable within a small clearing a few yards north of the B8062. Remarkably, a long stretch of the northern rampart of the 100 acre marching camp at Innerpeffray can also be observed running parallel with the modern road just within the wood.

The site was originally occupied by a wooden tower measuring about 10 ft. by 12 ft. (c.3 x 3.7 m) defended with a rampart of clay 9 ft. (2.7 m) wide and a single ditch 12 ft. (3.7 m) in width. There was a causeway across the ditch and a corresponding gap in the rampart on the north side facing the Roman road which ran along the Gask Ridge to the east. The site was excavated in March 1968.

A couple of temporary marching camps occupy a flat promontory a little way to the south of the road overlooking a tributary stream of the River Earn at Innerpeffray. This watch-tower along with others spaced almost uniformly along the Roman military road into the north-east formed an early Roman frontier along the Gask Ridge in Tayside. The station at Gask House is an exact duplicate in every particular.

References for Parkneuk

  • D.E.S. 1968 p.28;
  • Roman Britain in 1967 in J.R.S. lviii (1968) p.178;
  • Roman Britain in 1968 in J.R.S. lix (1969) p.202;
  • Britannia i (1970) p.274.

Map References for Parkneuk

NGRef: NN916185 OSMap: LR58

Roman Roads near Parkneuk

W (1) to Strageath NE (13) to Bertha E (0.5) to Raith (Tayside)

Sites near Parkneuk Cottage Signal Station