Antonine Wall - Bearsden

The Antonine Wall fort at Bearsden was largely covered by houses in the 19th century, but when the site was redeveloped in the 1970s, archaeologists took the chance to investigate the remains. Inside the fort were barracks, stables, granaries, a workshop and storehouses. One of the artefacts found at the fort was an inscribed gaming board. Nothing can now be seen of the fort, but within the fort's annexe, on its eastern side, was a well-preserved bath house (above), and this can be visited today.

General view of the bath house. In the foreground is the hot room (the caldarium), which had a raised floor to allow hot air to circulate. The changing rooms are in the background.

The bath house is a long, rectangular building with three projecting wings. Its walls were of wood and stone, covered by plaster inside and out. The roof was of wood, and the stone floors rested on pillars to allow air, heated by the furnaces, to circulate below them. The baths were used by all the soldiers in the fort, and relaxing in the bath house was part of the soldiers' social life.

The bathers would walk from the changing rooms into the cold room, and from there could go into either the hot, dry room (the sudatorium) or one of the steam rooms. The steam rooms were lined with stone benches, on which the bathers could sit and rub themselves with olive oil, which was later scraped off using a strigil. There was a hot bath for soaking, and a cold bath for a final dip before returning to the fort. The bath house was warm and comfortable, and was used for relaxing in as well as for bathing. The soldiers probably met here to exchange news, to gamble and play board games, too!

A furnace, which heated the warm rooms

The cold bath

The archway through which hot air came from the furnace into the hot, dry room

On the south-east side of the bath house was a communal latrine (toilet). Slab-covered drains from the bath house ran down the slope and helped to flush out the latrine. Wooden seats would have been used over the shallow channel around the latrine's walls. Washable sponges were used instead of toilet paper.

The latrine (bottom of picture)

One of the slab-covered drains

Archaeologists discovered the carved stone head of a goddess, probably Fortuna (below), in the cold bath of the bath house. Fortuna protected soldiers from the evil eye. Finds such as this one provide valuable clues to the role of religion in the soldiers' lives.

A short distance (about 1 kilometre) from Bearsden bath house, sections of the stone base of the Antonine Wall can clearly be seen at New Kilpatrick Cemetery (below). These sections of the Wall's base are around 4.5 metres (16 Roman feet) wide, and one section is crossed by a stone drain. A turf rampart, probably 3-4 metres high and topped by a timber walkway, rested on the stone base of the Wall.

Another part of the Wall's stone base

The wall base is crossed by a drain (centre of picture)