Pennymuir Roman camps

The Pennymuir Roman camps stand in the Scottish Borders near Jedburgh, close to the Anglo-Scottish border. They lie on rough moorland in the Cheviot Hills beside Dere Street, the Roman road that once linked the north of Roman Britain to the south. Four temporary camps, a linear earthwork and an area of rig mark the site, sometimes called the Towford camps. The remains sit about seven kilometres northwest of the Roman camps and fortlets at Chew Green on the English side of the border. Nearby is Woden Law hillfort, adding to the area’s ancient interest. These camps are worth visiting because two of them, Camps A and B, rank among the best preserved Roman camps in Scotland. William Roy first recorded them in 1774, and their ramparts and ditches still show clearly. Camp A, the largest, encloses nearly eighteen hectares and has visible entrance gaps on all four sides. Camp B, built later inside Camp A, measures about four hectares and shows signs of later reoccupation. The smaller Camps C and D survive only in fragments, yet they add to the site’s layered history. A visitor finds grassy banks and ditches where once Roman soldiers marched. Camp A’s ramparts reach up to 4.6 metres wide and 1.2 metres high, with ditches of similar depth. Camp B’s north gate was narrowed in a later period, hinting at reuse. Camp C survives mainly on its west side as a slight turf bank, while Camp D appears only on air photographs. Between the camps lie traces of a later farmstead with buildings and enclosures, and rig-and-furrow marks show where fields were once cultivated. The linear earthwork inside Camp A suggests a later boundary line.