Antoninus, WALL OF

Antoninus, WALL OF, a Roman rampart erected between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, in 140 A.D., during the reign of Antoninus Pius, to restrain the encroachments of the northern tribes. The superintendence of the work is generally attributed to the imperial legate, Lollius Urbicus. Following the earlier line of Agricola's forts (81 A.D.), it extended 36 miles—the eastern termination being at Carriden, on the Forth; the western, near Old Kilpatrick, on the Clyde. The work consisted of a ditch about 20 feet deep and 40 feet wide, a rampart of earth and stone about 20 feet high and 24 feet thick at the base, and on the inner or south side of the rampart a paved military road, with a chain of twenty-one forts. The line of the wall may still be traced to a considerable extent. The most perfect fragments are near Castlecary; within the park of Callendar House, Falkirk; and on the slopes at Inveravon, not far from Polmont station. It is commonly designated Graham's or Grime's Dyke—Grim being an old English name for the devil. See Waldie's Northern Roman Wall (Linlithgow, 1883).