What does inclusion on the list of World Heritage Sites mean?
Museums
FRONTIERS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Useful addresses
Several museums contain artefacts UNESCO, 4 Place de Fontenoy, from the Antonine Wall: 75352 Paris 07 SP, France www.unesco.org Hunterian Museum, University Avenue, Historic Scotland, Longmore House, Glasgow G12 8QQ Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH email: hunter@museum.gla.ac.uk www.historic-scotland.gov.uk www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk
The legal status of the Antonine Wall does not change. The archaeological remains of the frontier are already protected through the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997. The Antonine Wall is protected by buffer zones, mostly already designated as Green Belt, Countryside Land or Public Open Space in Council Local Plans. Inclusion on the World Heritage List is a high accolade, providing international recognition of the importance of the Antonine Wall. It does not mean that development cannot take place near the Wall but that any adverse impact on the Wall, its setting or the values which contribute to its World Heritage status would have to be taken into account in determining the application.
WORLD HERITAGE SITE
THE ANTONINE WALL
RCAHMS, John Sinclair House, National Museum of Scotland, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 9NX Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH email: info@rcahms.gov.uk www.rcahms.gov.uk email: info@nms.ac.uk
www.nms.ac.uk
East Dunbartonshire Council,
Planning, Development and Property Kinneil Museum, Kinneil Estate, Bo’ness EH51 0PR Assets, Kirkintilloch Road, Bishopbriggs
Callendar House Museum, Callendar Park, Falkirk FK1 1YR email callendar.house@falkirk. gov.uk www.falkirk.gov.uk/cultural
Where can I find out more about the Antonine Wall? The document nominating the Antonine Wall as a World Heritage Site may be consulted on Historic Scotland’s website: www.historic-scotland.gov.uk. The maps identifying all elements of the World Heritage Site were prepared by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). They may be consulted at their office in Edinburgh, at Historic Scotland, and at Council planning offices and libraries along the line of the Antonine Wall (see Useful addresses). Additional information about the frontier and where to visit it is available on the Antonine Wall website: www.antoninewall.org and on the Map of the Antonine Wall (see Further Reading).
G64 2TR Tel: 0141 578 8640 email: pdpa@eastdunbarton.gov.uk www.eastdunbartonshire.gov.uk
Falkirk Council: Development Services, Abbotsford House, David’s Loan, Bainsford, Falkirk FK2 7YZ Tel. 01324 504950 email: planenv@falkirk.gov.uk
Auld Kirk Museum, Cowgate, Kirkintilloch G66 1AB Glasgow City Council, Tel: 0141 578 0144 Development and Regeneration Services, email: museums@eastdunbarton. gov.uk www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk 229 George Street, Glasgow G1 1QU
David J Breeze, The Antonine Wall, The North-West Frontier of the Roman Empire, Proposed as a World Heritage Site (Edinburgh 2004) David J Breeze, Edge of Empire, Scotland’s Roman Frontier the Antonine Wall (Edinburgh 2008) Map of the Antonine Wall (RCAHMS, Historic Scotland and the Hunterian Museum, Edinburgh 2008)
email: info@glasgow.gov.uk www.glasgow.gov.uk
North Lanarkshire Council, Fleming House, 2 Tryst Road, Cumbernauld G67 1JW email: corporatecommunications@ northlan.gov.uk www.northlan.gov.uk West Dunbartonshire Council, Forward Planning and Regeneration Section, Council Offices, Garshake Road, Dumbarton G82 3PU email: buildingandplanning@westdunbarton.gov.uk www.wdcweb.info
© RCAHMS
www.antoninewall.org ISBN: 978 1 904966 83 8 Published by Historic Scotland 2008
The House 7/08 H1. 577 Produced from sustainable material
Further reading
www.antoninewall.org
Best Walk
Fortlet
Rampart Base
Museums
Visible lengths of rampart & ditch
07
Best Fortlet
A907
A9
Fort
A90
Best Forts
Antonine Wall
Kincardine A 98 5
5
M 80
M
A8 72
Loch Coulter
Airth
9
Valleyfield
Dunfermline
Ca
ch d Lo mon Lo
09
6
KILSYT
Strathblane
A891
Dunbarton
Milton of Campsie
Summerston
Ke l v i
n
8 Erskine
Cleddans
M8
A8
er
Cl
2
79
Riv
A8
Cadder Balmuildy A8
Kilmacolm
Bearsden
yd e
A807
Duntocher
Bishopton
City of Glasgow
Paisley Linwood
Bar Hill Auchendavy Kirkintilloch
Wilderness Plantation M
80
Coatbridge
Hunterian Museum
N
early 2,000 years ago, the Antonine Wall was the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire. In January 2007 a proposal to make it a World Heritage Site, prepared by officials in Historic Scotland and supported by the 5 local authorities through which the Wall runs (East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire), was submitted to UNESCO. In July 2008, the World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec approved it as a World Heritage Site and the Antonine Wall became part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site alongside Hadrian’s Wall and the German limes.
Croy Hill A8
0
i
Watling Lodge
Seabegs Castlecary Westerwood
Carriden
04
Kinneil Inveravon
Airdrie
The Antonine Wall was the frontier built by the Roman army in the years following AD 140 on the orders of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. It ran for 40 Roman miles (60 km) from modern Bo’ness on the Firth of Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde and consisted of a turf rampart fronted by a wide and deep ditch. Forts and fortlets provided accommodation for the troops based on the Wall as well as points where the Wall could be crossed. They were linked by a road, known as the Military Way. All these elements, together with the remains of the camps used by the Wall builders, are included in the World Heritage Site. The frontier was only occupied for about a generation before being abandoned in the 160s.
2
1
0 0
1 1
A90
4
4
Broxburn
M8
6
Livingston 2
2
M9
Bathgate
Roman miles A89
04
National Museum, Edinburgh
Armadale
0
Caldercruix
A9
Linlithgow
Maddiston
Shieldhill
Plains
r th
A803
Cumbernauld
Glenmavis
of Fo
Bo'ness
Mumrills
Rough Castle
What was the Antonine Wall?
© Hunterian Museum
A9
Glasgow Bridge
M8
M8
87
3 A80
Grangemouth
A801
Castlehill
R i ve r
M73
A8 07
Fi r t h
a r r on
Falkirk
1
M
Bridge of Weir
Carlston
Old Kilpatrick
C l yd e
C ver
LLS
Kilsyth
Lennoxtown
A8
A813
TRICK HILLS K I L PA
I HH
R
3 4
4
M8 6
10 miles
5 8
10
20 kms
Why is the Antonine Wall special? The Antonine Wall was one of the many sections of frontier which helped to protect – and define - the Roman Empire, one of the greatest states ever to have existed. It has a particular claim to being special as it was the most northerly frontier of the empire and, when it was built, the most complex frontier ever constructed by the Romans. It is also a symbol of the Golden Age of the Roman Empire, a special period recognised at the time and, much later, by Edward Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
© Hunterian Museum
A8
Denny
© NMS
A82
Bonhill
A88
e y Re s r
CAMPSIE FELLS
M
A81
1
nV
A9
r ro all
Milngavie
R i ve r
New Road Bridge
Bannockburn
Military Way