Day one

Departing from Carlisle (too early to visit the fine Roman exhibits at the Tullie House Museum whichI caught the previous day), the group headed by bus to the "trainingcamp" at Burnswark (Multimap links are 1:25,000. To place the site in broader context, "zoom" out on the Multimap page), where two Flavian forts bracket a Iron Age hill fortress. A bit of drizzle seemed an ominous start to the tour but the rain slacked off and we were treated with a energetic climb to the hilltop, followed by a walk along the north wall of the southern fort. After inspecting the small Antonine fortlet built in the corner of the southern Flavian camp, we retraced our steps to one of the ballista platforms and were treated to a man-portable ballista demonstration by Dr. David Wilkins, author of Roman Artillery (Shire Books).

The trajectory, speed and distance of the ballista bolts was dramatic, especially on a site like Burnswark where such equipment would have been used. Even a modest ballista operating by a small team of men would havea "draw weight" of 350 lbs.

Hopping on our bus, we heading north north-east past modern Moffat, occasionally along the Roman road heading north from Carlisle. The terrain is rugged by UK standards and the road crosses into the watershed of the Tweed River. Following the drainage northeast, the tour headed to the 5.6 acre Antonine fort at Lyne which protected the west-east Roman road of the era linking Trimontium and the west end of the Antonine Wall (via Castledykes).

This was our second exposure to the state of preservation of Roman forts in Scotland. The ditches and ramparts at Lyne seemed modestly damaged by agricultural plowing but more subject to damage from grazing by livestock and burrowing by rabbits. A gorgeous day unfolded. The site and its beautiful surroundings stirred the imagination. What was it like when newly constructed? At Lyne, the fort had very steep slopes on two sides, watching over the Lyne Water crossing, and a wide expanse of fields now extending northwards contains the lesser remains of temporary annexes. A nearby Celtic "cist" (pronounced KIST or SIST) burial complex could be seen on a nearby hillock. Our lunch was eaten in brightsunshine nearby at a section of stone wall near a churchyard (Allelyne).

From Lyne we made our way eastward, following the drainage of the Tweed river toward the modern town of Melrose, where the Trimontium Museum can be found in the town square. Melrose sits in a protected east-west river valley with the Eildon Hills (Tri-montium - Three Hills) forming a dramatic backdrop to the south. The museum in Melrose is modest in scale (a local labour of love) but has the great fortune to drawn from excavations at the nearby Roman fortress of Trimontium (modern Newstead). The collected materials are spectacular examples of Roman material culture, especially organic materials (wood, leather). Many of the items are on loan from the National Museum of Scotland but have an extra something when displayed near where they were excavated. The collapsed ramparts and ditches of the Scottish fortress sites don't convey the richness and shared humanity of Roman culture half as much as the tools, ornaments and items of ordinary life on display at theTrimontium Museum.

The museum can be thoroughly seen in 30-45 minutes. Our tour members then had the choice of joining Dr. Bishop on a hike up Eildon Hill North to see the remains of a Roman signal station, or they could spend an hour or so visiting shops, tea houses, or the local ruined abbey in Melrose. I opted for the climb but in bright mid-afternoon sunshine and increasing heat the walk up the Eildon Hill North was more challenging than I expected. Dressed for cooler weather, and coming from western Canada (seven times zones away, low humidity, 4000 feet above sea level), the mid-afternoon sunshine, heat and humidity of southern Scotland proved how out of shape I was. Increasingly spectacular views couldn't quite compensate for my sweating and gasping. Somehow the airhad turned into thick jelly with a low oxygen content. Not sure why ...

Our group climbed almost but not quite high enough to see the remains of Roman signal station (circular pit with rampart and four post holes).

There is little doubt why the Romans were impressed with the value of the hill for observation. Returning to the bus, the tour made a brief trip east of Melrose to the actual site of fortresses at Trimontium (Newstead) in late afternoon. A set of fields and hedgerows beside a housing development, with a pleasant road and walking path along the north margin of the site, is all that remains of several hundred years of Roman military and civilian settlement. Our
walk gave us a sense of the scale of Roman development during their occupation. The A68 main road between the Borders and Edinburgh passes just to the east, not far from where the Roman bridge also crossed the River Tweed.

The quiet of a late afternoon walk around Trimontium was followed by a one-hour bus ride north to Edinburgh and a night at an excellent hotel just off the Royal Mile. The contrast between a sunlit lunch at rural Lyne and the bustle of urban Edinburgh with sirens throughout the night
couldn't have been more dramatic.