Excavation of a Camp at Mouswald. 311 



6 inches. At the bottom of the ditch was found a quantity of 

 fiat whin stones, lying face and face, in what looked like puddled 

 clay. Considerable difficulty, however, was experienced in 

 ascertaining how these stones lay, owing to the fact that the 

 workers struck a spring of water, which flowed in quicker than 

 it could be baled out. The party had not come prepared with 

 a hand pump. A few bits of wood were dug out of the trench, 

 but they only had the appearance of birch or elder roots ; they 

 had probably been thrown there to fill up the ditch when the 

 land was first ploughed. No signs of a gateway were found on 

 this side. In the hopes that remains of some sort might be found 

 nearer the centre of the camp, this trench was continued as far 

 as the middle of it. There were no signs whatever that the 

 camp had ever been inhabited. Only one stone was unearthed 

 that looked as if it had been cut with an implement, and after 

 examination by Mr Barbour this idea was negatived. 



The other trench was dug up through the centre of the gate, 

 commencing outside the outer rampart: — it brought to light 

 nothing except an old dry-stone drain, which came down through 

 the centre of the gateway and then turned sharply to the left into 

 the ditch. The ditch originally terminated on either side of the 

 gate, so that there was an open level causeway from the gate, 

 broadening out till it had passed the outer rampart. The gate- 

 way was 20' feet broad, and the causeway in the middle of the 

 ditch measured 38 feet in breadth. 



There were no signs of any traverse. A hole was also dug 

 in a likely-looking spot within the camp, in the hope that a 

 well might be found. It produced nothing but impenetrable 

 till. The ground is to-day naturally moist, and with the spring 

 found in the ditch any occupants of the camp could never have 

 lacked water. In the O.S. of 1858 the camp was marked as 

 "Supposed Roman." In the most recent survey it does not 

 figure at all. So it is as well that some note of it should be 

 put on record. It has no characteristics which can definitely 

 be stated to be Roman. Its irregular, rectilineal shape, its 

 single gateway, its lack of ashlar work on the ramparts, all point 

 to its being of a different period. On the other hand, perhaps, 

 its rounded corners, its .sides of equal length, its V shaped ditch, 

 might point to Roman influence. 



