56 Transactions. 
connection with one another—Birrens being a Station or Fort 
that had been occupied by a Roman garrison for a longer or 
shorter period, and the Birrenswark enclosures, summer quarters 
to which detachments of the legionaries might be moved in turn 
from their more confined winter entrenchments. In the remarks 
that follow, I propose to state and review as impartially as I can 
the evidence that has been deemed sufficient to establish the 
truth of these propositions. 
The discoverer of the earthworks referred to, so far as the 
archzological world is concerned, was Gordon—the “Sandy ” 
Gordon of the “ Antiquary.” Jt is somewhat strange that they 
were entirely overlooked by all previous observers. Camden, 
who had collected what information he could for his notices of 
the various counties or districts of Scotland to be found in the 
successive editions of the ‘‘ Britannia ” published in his lifetime, 
knew nothing of them. It was the same with Gordon of Straloch. 
In the account of Annandale, which he wrote for Bleau’s 
‘Scottish Atlas,” neither Birrens nor Birrenswark is mentioned. 
More unaccountable still is the silence of that most industrious 
writer, Sir Robert Sibbald. When gathering materials for his 
“« Historical Inquiries,’ he secured, as we learn from Bishop 
Nicholson, the services of residents in the different districts of the 
country, who furnished him with detailed reports on all matters 
of antiquarian interest in each of them. In this way he received 
a description of the “Stewardy of Anandale, with a map of the 
country, by Mr Johnston, a minister there,” and also of ‘The 
Shire of Dumfrese, by Dr Archibald, with his account of the 
natural products of Galloway and Dumfreseshire.” Some of 
these papers are preserved among the Sibbald MSS. in the 
Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, though the two that relate to 
Dumfriesshire appear to be awanting. From what we read in the 
“‘ Inquiries,” we may infer that Sir Robert’s correspondents had 
spoken of there having been a Roman Fort at Caerlaverock, and 
another at the “ Village” of Solway, as well as a Roman Port on 
the Nith, somewhere below the town of Dumfries. But these 
are his only references to Roman antiquities in the county. The 
“‘ Historical Inquiries ” was published in 1707. 
Alexander Gordon next comes on the scene. Born in 
Aberdeen towards the close of the seventeenth century, he studied 
at one or other of the two northern Universities, now united, 
taking there the degree of M.A. Little is known of his earlier 
? 
