£54k funding allows focus on Roman hill fort site

The ancient fort on the summit of Burnswark Hill, near Ecclefechan, will be the focus of the project being taken forward by not-for-profit historical society The Trimontium Trust in Melrose in partnership with Dumfries and GallowayMuseums Service.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have awarded the money towards the community-based programme.
Called the Burnswark Roman Siege Project, it includes a 12- month-long programme of excavation, interactive exhibitions and talks involving volunteers from the local community.
It will focus on the dark deeds which took place almost two thousand years ago during a massive, and probably bloody, Roman siege of the largest native hill fort on the Border.
The project will be supervised by a team of professional archaeologists and museum staff will enable local people to gain newskills in archaeology and historical interpretation to help them discover useful new evidence of what happened at the site during the Roman invasion and contribute to a new understanding of local history.
The site has not been explored to this level by archaeologists for 50 years during which time knowledge and techniques have improved considerably.
Techniques will range from conventional excavation to drone photography and 3D mapping.
Chairman of the Trimontium Trust, Dr John Reid, who has been fascinated by Burnswark since child-hood, paid tribute to the landowner, Sir John Buchanan-Jardine and the farmer, Mr Andrew MacGregor.
Dr Reid said: “None of this would have been possible without their enthusiastic support and foresight.”
He also singled out council archaeologist Andrew Nicholson and curator at Dumfries and Galloway Museums Siobhan Ratchford for ‘their expertise and unstinting assistance, which have been invaluable so far in getting this project off the ground’.
The project will be launched with a free public lecture entitled ‘The Roman Siege of Burnswark’ at 7.30 pm on Wednesday August 5 at Kirkconnel Hall Hotel in Ecclefechan.