The Pit Alignment at Eskbank Nurseries

Abstract

Eskbank Nurseries, a market garden allotment some 200 m long and 30 to 40 m wide, lies at approximately 70 m OD on a relatively level terrace overlooking the south bank of the river North Esk (fig. 1). The excavated area is centred on NT320660 and lies within the two superimposed Roman camps first noted as crop marks by St Joseph in 1965 and subsequently excavated by Maxfield in 1972. Her excavation areas I and II were sited to investigate a pit alignment, visible on the aerial photographs and plotted by her (Maxfield 1974, 142, fig. 1). In the event no pits were discovered by excavation, a fact attributable to an unfavourable combination of weather and soil conditions (Maxfield 1974, 150). The pit alignment did not, of course, appear as a crop mark in the deep market-garden soils of the Nurseries but, by extrapolation of Maxfield's plot, it was clear that it must cross the northern half of the allotment, possibly intersecting the north ditch of the earlier of the Roman camps (Maxfield's Camp A) on the west edge of the site.