i903-i9°4-] -^ ntiquities, &c., of Cramond District. 119 



vestiges of the causeway were visible a few years ago ; and the 

 present turnpike road from Edinburgh to Linton is cut, for 

 nearly a mile, in the very line of its direction. The Eoman 

 military way was thence continued by Eavelston to Cramond, 

 where several remains thereof have been found at different 

 places, particularly in 1774, when improvements were being 

 made on the grounds adjacent to Cramond House. The road, 

 as is supposed, then proceeded across the Amon, and passing 

 over Mons Hill, went by way of South Queensferry and Aber- 

 corn to Caerridden, situated at the eastern extremity of the wall 

 of Antoninus. It is true, indeed, that no vestiges thereof can 

 be traced betwixt Cramond and Caerridden ; but, as General 

 Eoy observes, there is every reason to believe that the com- 

 munication must have been continued, from this important 

 naval station, along the Forth to the end of the wall. Mait- 

 land (History of Scotland) mentions that a Eoman way ran 

 from Inveresk to Cramond, crossing the Water of Leith at the 

 foot of the Weigh-House Wynd in the town of Leith, but no 

 traces of it are to be found in this neighbourhood. 



The situation of Cramond at the mouth of a well-sheltered 

 harbour, to which the military ways afforded a safe and easy 

 communication from their southern posts, could not escape the 

 observation of the Eomans, as rendering it particularly fit for 

 the reception of such of their vessels as had occasion to visit 

 the Bodotrian Firth, and it is probable that this was one of 

 the most considerable marine stations belonging to them in 

 Scotland. The rock of freestone known by the name of the 

 Hunter's Craig (or Eagle Eock), on the seashore west from 

 Cramond, had (and still seems to have) on its east face a rude 

 sculpture bearing some resemblance to the figure of an eagle 

 standing upright with its back to the rock, by some supposed 

 to have been executed by the Eomans. 



After the departure of the Eomans a dark cloud of obscurity 

 again settled over the parish of Cramond, of which the 

 smallest memorial cannot be found in any historian till the 

 year 995, when a bloody conflict took place between Kenneth, 

 natural brother and commander - in - chief of the forces of 

 Malcolm II. of Scotland, and those of Constantine, usurper of 

 the throne, who headed his army in person. 



Granton, in this parish, is famous in history for the landing 



