A Roman Road from the Long Mountain to Dolgellau and Some Branches

Abstract

W ITHIN the area between Tomen-y-Mur and Erglodd and eastwards across Wales to the Whitchurch-Wroxeter-Leintwardine Roman road, there are I I known forts or fortlets, but little is known of the road-system which serviced them. The latest edition of the Map of Roman Britain' shows only parts of the road from Wroxeter to Caersws via Forden Gaer and fragments of other roads, although the Chester road from Caer Gai to Brithdir2 is sufficiently well defined to merit inclusion. It is a mountainous area which is split by many river valleys (FIG. I). The mountains tend to be steep-sided with rugged tops, while steep sides and narrow bottoms are frequent features of many of the valleys. Sheep-farming has predominated and in general cultivation has had only minimal effect upon the majority of the land surface. In this type of country river valleys, wherever they conveniently exist, provide the easiest way through the mountains, for they are natural corridors which facilitate the construction of roads possessing the lowest possible gradients. Arterial road-systems, where major routes are laid out almost irrespective of forts, are more suitable than are the fort to fort roadsystems of less mountainous regions. A major Roman road being constructed through the area would require massive engineering, especially for the creation of terraces along steep hillsides. It could reasonably be expected that later roads would take full advantage of Roman engineering by exactly overlying their roads. Fortunately they occasionally make short deviations which give intermittent glimpses of how the Roman roads would have appeared to later engineers. Fieldwork has proved that there are sufficient free-standing remains of major roads to enable at least some of their courses to be traced with considerable degrees of certainty and precision, if due consideration is given to the topography and to the effect of cultivation. For example, if such a road had been constructed along a hillside which has been relatively undisturbed, it would be a distinctive feature of the landscape unless it had been covered by a modern road or railway, as witness some extant portions described below. To trace the roads it is necessary to be objective and to closely examine all land within a sufficiently wide area along the route to eliminate any possible alternative course for however short a distance. That which has been said of major Roman roads does not entirely apply to the minor roads for these were narrower, were sometimes inclined to meander, and the degree of engineering necessary for their construction was considerably less. Their remains are therefore fewer and often more difficult to identify.