1903-4.] Date of Upheaval of Baisecl Beaches in Scotland. 257 
to a period certainly previous to the Roman invasion. If the statement 
be erroneous, the other alternative remains, that the upward movement 
may have been wholly or in part effected after the Roman invasion. 
“ After carefulty examining both extremities of the wall, and reading the 
narratives of the various antiquaries who have treated of the Roman 
remains in Scotland, I have no hesitation in affirming that not only is 
there no evidence that the wall was constructed with a regard to the 
present level of the land, but there is every ground for believing that it 
was built when the land was at least 20 feet lower than it is at present. 
To begin with the east end : from the Avon, west of Borrowstounness, 
eastward to Carriden, the ground rises from the old coast line as a steep 
bank, the summit of which is from 50 to 100 feet above the sea ; between 
the bottom of this abrupt declivity and the present margin of the Firth 
there is a narrow strip of flat ground, about 200 yards broad, on which 
Borrowstounness is built, and which nowhere rises more than 20 feet 
above high-water. It is a mere prolongation of the Falkirk carse, 
already described, and beyond doubt formed the beach where the sea 
broke against the base of the steep bank. Now the Roman Wall was 
carried, not along this low land bordering the sea, but along the high 
ground that rose above it. The extremity at Carriden, therefore, instead 
of having any reference to the present limit of the tides, actually stood on 
the summit of a steep bank overhanging the sea, above which it was 
elevated fully 100 feet. If the land here were depressed 25 feet, no part of 
the wall would be submerged. The only change on the coast-line would 
be in the advance of the sea across the narrow flat terrace of Borrowstoun- 
ness and Grange, as far as the bottom of the abrupt declivity. 
“ The western termination of the Antonine Wall stood on the little 
eminence called Chapel Hill, near West Kilpatrick, on the north bank of 
the Clyde. Between this rising ground and the margin of the river lies 
the Forth and Clyde Canal, the surface of which is 20 feet above high- 
water mark, and the base of the hill at least 5 or 6 feet higher. Hence 
the wall terminated upon a hill, the base of which is not less than 25 feet 
above the present level of the sea. In making the canal, a number of 
Roman antiquities were found at various depths in the alluvium : these 
seem to have been part of the ruins from the fort above. If we admit 
that the wall was constructed previous to the last elevation of the land, 
we see a peculiar fitness in the site of its western termination. The 
Chapel Hill must, in that case, have been a promontory jutting out into 
the stream, and at high-water the river must have washed the base of the 
Kilpatrick Hills — a range of heights that rise steeply from lower grounds, 
and sweep away to the north-east. Hence, apart altogether from con- 
siderations dependent upon the strategic position of the hills, which were 
infested by the barbarians, w T e obtain an obvious reason why Lollius 
Urbicus ended his vallum at Old Kilpatrick.” — (Ibid., p. 228.) 
For the purpose of homologating these views, he quotes passages 
from the writings of various antiquaries, the most pertinent of 
which are the following 
PROC. ROY. SOC. EDIN. — YOL. XXV. 
17 
