A Trip To Trimontium

Recently I've been reading about the Roman attempts to extend the province of Britannia into what we now call Scotland. The most effective of the Roman Generals who took on the Caledonii, Novantae, Selgovae, Votadini, Damnonii, Venicones and Maeatae was Gnaeus Julius Agricola. His campaign ran from AD 78 to 82 and principally involved gaining a foothold between the existing border that ran between the Solway and the Tyne and what he hoped would be the new border between the Clyde and the Forth. Having done that he pushed on up the East coast as far as the Tay with the support of ships and marines and pushed the Caledonii tribe back along the Tay into the Cairngorms,

 

However, Rome was having problems on its Eastern border and the Emperor Domitian came to the throne in AD 81. He was not a military man like his father Vespasian and older brother Titus who were emperors before him and decided to recall Agricola in AD 82 before he became too popular with the Roman army. Domitian set about shoring up the Empire's infrastructure and expansionist projects came to an end. So the Scottish tribes north of the Clyde-Forth valley could draw a sigh of relief.

One of the significant settlements left by Agricola was a major fort and town called Trimontium after the three peaks of the Eildon hills that marked its position beside modern-day Newstead. There is nothing left but a couple of fields and two marker monuments there now. However that won't stop the re-enactors gathering there on 1st August for the Roman and Iron Age Festival if you'd like a flavour of Trimontium in its glory days.

Although there isn't much at the site of Trimontium these days, there is a small but beautifully formed Trimontium Museum in Melrose that is well worth a visit.