It would appear that there are traces of Roman roads even farther
north. Between the rivers Don and Urie in Aberdeenshire, on the
eastern side of Bennachee, there exists an ancient road known in
the country by the name of the _Maiden Causeway_, a name by which
some of the Roman roads in the north of England are distinguished.
This proceeds from Bennachee whereon there is said to have been
a hill-fort, more than the distance of a mile into the woods of
Pitodrie, when it disappears: it is paved with stones, and is about
fourteen feet wide. Still farther north, from Forres to the ford
of Cromdale on the Spey, there has been long known a road of very
ancient construction, pointing to Cromdale, where the Romans may have
forded the Spey. Various traces of very ancient roads are still to be
seen by Corgarf and through Braemar: the tradition of the people in
Strathdee and Braemar, supports the idea that there are remains of
Roman roads which traverse the country between the Don and the Dee.
Certain it is, that there are obvious traces of ancient roads which
cross the wild districts between Strathdon and Strathdee, though it
is impossible to ascertain when or by whom these ancient roads were
constructed, in such directions, throughout such a country.
Along these roads there were without doubt many camps and stations,
as it is well known that the Romans never halted even for a single
night, without entrenching themselves behind secure fortifications.
There are many remains of what are supposed to have been Roman camps
still pointed out in various places north of the line occupied
by Antonine’s wall. These are well known even to the peasantry,
and are generally treated with respect. The line of these camps
reaches as far as the counties of Aberdeen and Inverness, the most
important of them, however, being found in Strathallan, Strathearn,
and Strathmore. Besides the most important of these camps, that at
Ardoch, traces of many others have been found. There was one on the
river Earn, about six miles east of Ardoch, which would command
the middle part of Strathearn lying between the Ochil hills on the
south and the river Almond on the north. Another important station
is supposed to have been established near Callander, where, on a
tongue of land formed by the junction of the rivers Strathgartney and
Strathyre, the two sources of the Teith, are seen the embankments
referred to by Scott[21] as
“The mouldering lines
Where Rome, the empress of the world,
Of yore her eagle wings unfurled.”[22]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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