THE ROMAN SIGNAL FORTLET AT OUTERWARDS, AYRSHIRE

Abstract

Fieldwork conducted in Renfrewshire, 19541963, by the author, in co-operation with Mrs Anne Hallifax Crawford, and Messrs William O. Black, H. Ernest Newall, MB, ChB, George Newall, MA, and Robert C. Scott had established the general pattern of sites. Since 1963, William Lonie, BSc, PhD, and the writer, assisted by Alastair S. Newall, have concentrated on the total recovery of the Roman road system and the investigation of the possible contemporaneity with it ofnearby native round houses. The results are recorded in Fig. 1. Here may be indicated that excavations at Martin Glen, No. 44(1), and sherds recovered from drains at Rottenburn, No. 43(2), indicate that the majority of analogous headwater sites, largely confined to the 700/ 900-fcet contour zone, arc probably LBA/EIA. Just possibly later are Nos. 5-10. The stonewalled round-house in our area is not, then, of the Roman Iron Age. Indeed native sites which have produced Roman material contain timber houses'3'. The system indicated, with major trunk roads reaching from Whitemoss via Lurg Moor and Outerwards to Largs or Fairlie; and from