Durisdeer Roman Fort & Queensberry Marbles

This Roman fort is a well kept secret because it lies in a quiet valley in an overlooked corner of Dumfriesshire. It is one of the best preserved Roman fortlets in Scotland and the earthworks remain largely undisturbed. Archaeological excavations in 1938 identified that the Fort was occupied during the Antonine period and contained 2 wooden buildings that may have house mounted Roman troops. The purpose of the Fort was to guard a Roman Road that passed through the Lowther Hills travelling from Nithsdale in the west to the Clyde Valley in the east.
The fort consists of an inner rectangle some 32 metres by 18 metres, which is protected by a 9m thick embankment that rises some 4 metres above the outer ditch.
Whilst other forts in low lying areas have often been disturbed by farming or the intrusion of modern roads & buildings, Durisdeer has escaped this and its situation in a quiet valley gifts it an eerie sense of time stood still. A great place to visit to get a sense of the isolation and dangers faced by a Roman soldier in the land of the fearsome Picts.
The hike to this Roman Fort can also be combined with a visit to Durisdeer Church where you can see the "Queensberry Aisle". This is an ornately carved monument to commemorate the 2nd Duke of Queensberry (1662 - 1711) and his wife.
www.secret-scotland.com

[@ashhind5358]

My wife and I were lucky enough to be shown this site, by her cousin who lives in D&G, in 2018 when we visited from Australia. I'm fascinated with the history of your beautiful country. Glad I found this video.

[@robcrusoe]

That was great , nice bit of our history and thanks for sharing👍🏽

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Thanks for your comment.

[@RichO1701e]

Weird how you didn't mention anything about Scotland being in massive debt in 1700 and England giving the Scots the money to pay off their debt and by joining the Union. The Darien Scheme had a lot to do with Scotland's debt at the time.
If you're going to do history lessons, let's have less of the one-sided, revisionist, nationalism bollocks thank you.

[@SecretscotlandTours]

The Darien Scheme gambled away about 1/4 of Scotland's wealth. BUT Scotland had no national debt at the time of the Act of Union in 1707. Many people in the country of the Ruling Classes were deep in personal debt due to the Darien scheme disaster, and many of those voting in Parliament were compensated for their losses.
The English Parliament was prepared to pay a sum of money to its Scottish counterpart. That sum of almost £400,000, or around £30 million nowadays, was called the "Equivalent" and was intended to compensate Scotland for taking on a share of the English national debt.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Equivalent
www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/companies/equivalent-company.html#:~:text=Background%20history,share%20in%20England's%20national%20debt.
It would be wrong to say that Scotland had no debt at all, for the collapse of the Darien scheme and years of poor harvests as well as the loss of trade revenue due to the English Government creating the "Alien Act" which had left many Scots considerably in debt as it made Scots foreigners in England (despite sharing a Monarchy) and impacted on trade with English markets.
BUT this debt was not a “national” debt. The concept of a debt owed by a nation centrally was started in England and it began under King William and Queen Mary to pay for their foreign wars.

[@knicholson6003]

That’s you told.

[@AdolfPA]

tw4t

[@jennifermarchbank2982]

local pronunciation is DUR like GRR

[@SecretscotlandTours]

I have always had problems with rolling my Rrrs. I think I even made a comment subtitle in the video to apologise about that. I think it all stems from having a brace as a kid.