Situated not far from the town of Bonnybridge, Seabegs Wood offers not just an impressive stretch of the Antonine Wall and its associated ditch, but also probably the best-preserved section of the Wall’s military way.
The Antonine Wall, Seabegs Wood
As the photo above shows, it is possible to discern the various parts of the second-century Roman frontier here, with the wide ditch to the left, a flat area in the centre and the raised bump of the turf vallum just visible on the right. Time and the elements have inevitably taken their toll on the remains, so we have to use our imagination to picture what it might have looked like when that ditch was five meters deep, and that vallum was three meters high!
Just to the south of the Wall ran a military way, a road vital for moving troops and supplies along the busy frontier. At Seabegs Wood it is still possible to make out the subtle camber of the road, and the surface is still surprisingly solid compared to the damp grass around it.
The Roman Military Way, Seabegs Wood
One of the many fortlets which punctuated the Wall was discovered in the a field to the west of Seabegs Wood, although not sign of it can be seen today. To the east the line of the Wall disappears under the Forth Clyde Canal, just one of the many parts of this mighty boundary that were swallowed up by the eighteenth-century industrialisation of this part of central Scotland.
Find out more about visiting the Antonine Wall at Seabegs Wood here.
Visit Roman Britain 