Huntingtower, more fully West Mains of Huntingtower, is the easternmost watchtower in this series. It occupied the crest of a scarp on the south side of the Almond valley, west of Perth. The Roman site is distinct from the much later Huntingtower Castle.
Visit Huntingtower
📍 Location: Huntingtower, Perth and Kinross. National Grid reference NO 071 247.
👁 What survives: A buried and excavated site at West Mains of Huntingtower; not the medieval castle.
⭐ Best for: A lookout towards Bertha.
🥾 Visit: The pin marks the archaeological site, not a parking place, entrance or confirmed walking route. Use existing appropriate paths, respect crops and neighbouring homes, and follow local signs and any forestry restrictions. Do not use directions to Huntingtower Castle as directions to the Roman tower.
🏛 Explore nearby: Gask Ridge watchtower guide · Bertha Roman Fort
Google Map location · Trove site record · HES: Gask frontier background · Roman Gask Project
Approximate site pin, converted from the published National Grid reference (OSGB36 / British National Grid) to WGS84. Use it to locate the site, not its scheduled boundary. The reference is shown at 100 metres precision; it is not a new survey.
Huntingtower at a glance
| Feature | Evidence and interpretation |
|---|---|
| Period | Usually assigned to the late first-century, Flavian Gask system; precise site chronology remains uncertain. |
| Remains | A buried and excavated site at West Mains of Huntingtower; not the medieval castle. |
| Roadside position | South of the Roman road. |
| Possible communication | Huntingtower → Bertha |
| Garrison | The unit and number of soldiers are not securely known. |
The remains and their investigation
Discovered from the air in 1985, the enclosure initially raised questions because it was smaller than most known Gask tower sites. Roman Gask Project excavation confirmed a timber structure within a single ditch. The ditch measured about 16.2 metres across externally and had a north-western entrance. Four main post pits marked a slightly trapezoidal building covering roughly 12 square metres.
The post settings showed more than one structural phase. This matters because it extends evidence for rebuilding beyond the southern double-ditched towers to the other end of the line. It does not, however, turn the whole Gask system into a securely dated sequence. The excavation recovered no finds that fixed an absolute date for the tower.
The location offered a view towards Bertha, the fort near the Tay. The report also discusses a probable Roman road alignment below the scarp, associated with lines of quarry pits. As elsewhere, modern cultivation has altered the surface, and the present view from a field edge is not equivalent to the view from a reconstructed tower platform.
Watching the road
The nearby road linked the larger garrisons and the smaller posts. A watchtower gave soldiers an elevated position from which to observe traffic and the surrounding ground. The close spacing of these installations makes sense for surveillance as well as communication: recognising movement on a road is a different task from seeing a distant warning signal.
Modern trees, field boundaries and road surfaces are later parts of this landscape. They can hide both the earthworks and former sightlines. A modern ground-level view should therefore be compared cautiously with the possible outlook from a timber platform.
Huntingtower on the Gask Ridge
Possible communication with the forts
The excavation report and signalling study identify a view towards Bertha from the likely height of a timber tower, at a range of roughly 3.2 kilometres. A direct signal to the fort is consequently plausible. This is a proposed visual connection, not evidence that a particular message or signalling code was used.
These links depend on assumptions about tower height and visibility. Vegetation, weather and whether the installations were occupied at the same time also matter. Neither the diagram nor the surviving earthworks establishes a signalling code, a fixed watch rota or the size of a tower crew.
References and further reading
Trove: Huntingtower — NRHE 26918 — national site record, location and archaeological references.
HES: Gask frontier background — heritage information and context.
Woolliscroft, with Ramsay: the Roman Gask series tower at West Mains of Huntingtower — report or source text hosted by the Roman Gask Project.
Woolliscroft (1993), Signalling and the design of the Gask Ridge system, PSAS 123, 291–313 — possible links and their limitations.
Woolliscroft and Hoffmann, The Roman Gask system fortlet of Glenbank, PSAS 139, 167–193, Table 2 — comparative roadside positions. Westerton follows its excavation report where the descriptions differ.
Read alongside the Gask Ridge watchtower guide and the guide to Roman forts in Scotland.
