Ar'doch

Ar'doch, a place in Perthshire, 12 miles NNE. of Stirling, celebrated for a Roman camp, the most entire in Britain. The intrenched works form a rectangle 500 by 430 feet, the four sides facing the cardinal points. The north and east sides are protected by five deep ditches and six ramparts, these works being 270 feet broad on the north side, and 180 feet on the east. A deep morass exists on the SE., and the perpendicular banks of Knaik Water, rising 50 feet high, protect the camp on the west. The prætorium, or general's quarters, now called Chapel Hill, rises above the level of the camp, but is not exactly in the centre, and is nearly a square of 60 feet each side. Three of the four gates usual in Roman camps are still seen. A subterranean passage is said to have formerly extended from the prætorium under the bed of the Knaik. Not far north of this station, on the way to Crieff, may be traced three temporary Roman camps of different sizes. Portions of the ramparts of these camps still exist.