The Romans in Nairn
In 84AD, Agricola brought the Roman Army around Scotland to conquer the island of Briton for the Romans.
The trouble is, once you get past the central belt – where irrefutable signs of a Roman presence can be found – the story of where the Romans held a presence becomes very tentative indeed.
We know from descriptions of Agricola’s campaign written by Tacitus – a son in law and prodigious Roman writer we still have extant works from – that the Roman army did reach the Moray Firth. However, information on the Roman influence in the area remain strictly debatable.
I just found an item on the Highland Council history section which details excavation work on a suspected Roman camp in a field just above Easter Galcantray.
One area where Roman influence remains also proven is Birnie, south of Elgin, where a major Iron Age settlement, complete with Roman coin hoards, has been excavated. This is really interesting to Romanophiles because of the few things Tacitus does mention about the Moray Firth region, is the presence of a “city” – of which Birnie seems the leading contender.
What even more interesting in this mix is the obvious strength of the position at Burghead, which is known to have been the site of a major Pictish fort, but so far I’m seeing little direct evidence of Roman occupation (though I’m still at the start of my research).
I’ve been very much into ancient history for some years, and am hoping to look much more deeply around the region across all ages up to the Medieaval period.
While Scotland does have a long history, so far I’ve felt unsatisfied with the coverage of local history outside of nationalist history.
While there are major monuments – Clava Cairns and similar major features – I’m personally much more interested in the everday life, and find it much more exciting when I discover earthworks that could suggest an iron age or bronze age settlement – a place where ordinary people would have been present in number – and then tie that in with the known features of the period as well as landscape.
I’m sure there’s plenty of information out there, but a big part of the thrill is actually finding it yourself – driving out, stopping at a field, and suddenly realising there are signs of ancient settlement. So I’ll look to do both.
In the meantime, a trip to Easter Galcantray should be a pleasant and short drive for the family, and while I don’t expect to find any Romans there, hopefully it will form part of a larger historical trail, where I can begin to better understand the ancient history of Nairn in the context of its surroundings.
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Try the Roman Well in Burghead Brian. Did the Romans build it? You decide
Sounds like a good start.
I’ve seen references to it being presumed the Romans were at Burghead, but I haven’t yet researched to what extent they are believed to have been there. Will, soon.