A Roman Bath-House at Duntocher on the Antonine Wall

Abstract

At the beginning of July 1775 a Roman bath-house was accidentally discovered on the northwestern slope of Golden Hill, Duntocher (FIGS 1–2), and its remains investigated. Site-drawings were made and some finds sent for identification to the Society of Antiquaries of London. Though, an account of the work was published by Richard Gough in his 1789 edition of Camden's Britannia , the excavation has been largely forgotten. The present assessment draws upon Gough's and other contemporary accounts, and upon unpublished material, especially the voluminous correspondence between Richard Gough and the Edinburgh bibliophile George Paton, now held by the National Library of Scotland, the Minute Books of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Gough Papers preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Also presented here will be an account of the chance rediscovery of the bath-house in 1978, and a geophysical survey undertaken, at the author's request, by the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, in 2001.