Antonine Wall

The Antonine Wall was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth [1]. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south, and intended to supersede it, while it was garrisoned it was the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire [1]. It spanned approximately 63 kilometres and was about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide [1]. Security was bolstered by a deep ditch on the northern side [1]. The barrier was the second of two "great walls" created by the Romans in Great Britain in the second century AD [1]. Construction began in AD 142 at the order of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius [1]. The Antonine Wall was protected by 16 forts with small fortlets between them; troop movement was facilitated by a road linking all the sites known as the Military Way [1]. The soldiers who built the wall commemorated the construction and their struggles with the Caledonians with decorative slabs, twenty of which survive [1].