Gask House Signal Station
About
Excavated first in 1900 and again in 1965, the signal station at Gask House measured 23 meters across its outer earthworks and gave the whole Gask Ridge frontier system its modern name. A mortarium rim recovered from the site dates the tower firmly to the Flavian period, when Rome pushed its frontier into the Scottish Highlands. Like the rest of the chain it fell out of use in 87 CE, decades before this snapshot, when the legions withdrew south.
What happened here
A small stone tower with a timber top, sited so that it can see the next one along the line. Half a dozen men live in it. They watch the ground in front, and they watch the tower on either side. A signal — fire and smoke at night, something visible by day — passes a warning down the chain far faster than a rider can, though it can only carry a message that was agreed in advance. The rest of the time it is a lookout post on a road, a river crossing or a frontier line, and the work is boredom punctuated by inspections. Supplies come up from the fort behind. Towers on a frontier stand within sight of each other for hundreds of miles.
Sources
Nearby
.png?width=800)
.png?width=800)
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →