The Antonine Wall - Edinburgh to Glasgow, Scotland
The Antonine Wall in Scotland was the northernmost frontier of the Roman empire, built around 142 AD by order of the emperor Antonine Pius, as a more northerly replacement of Hadrian’s Wall. It stretched for some 38 miles across the centre of Scotland, from Carriden in Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth to Old Kilpatrick n the outskirts of Glasgow near Dumbarton on the Firth of Clyde.
The Wall was occupied until the late 150s AD, when it was briefly abandoned and partially dismantled, it was then re-occupied until around 165 AD when the frontier was again withdrawn to Hadrian’s Wall.
Unlike the stone built Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall consisted of a linear turf and clay Rampart about 10 feet (3m) high on a stone foundation. Parallel to the Rampart, and 20 feet (6.1 m) to the north of it, a V-shaped ditch was cut, generally 40 feet (12.2 ) wide and 12 feet (3.6 m) deep. The soil and stone extracted from the ditch was deposited on its north side to form a mound known as the counterscarp.
South of the wall itself ran a stone cobbled road, called the Military Way, linking a network of forts, fortlets (such as Seabegs) and ‘expansions’ (possibly beacon platforms) built at intervals of approximately every 2 miles.
In AD 164 and after only 22 years, the Roman army withdrew from Scotland and the Antonine Wall was abandoned. The Romans pulled back to their northern frontier at Hadrian's Wall and it was not until the barbarian invasions from the north in AD 197, that the emperor Septimius Severus returned in AD 208 to restore order along the Scottish borders. After only a few years of reoccupation and repairs, the turf-built Antonine Wall was abandoned permanently and the Roman's main defensive line reverted south again to the more substantial, Hadrian's Wall.