Westerton stood on a low ridge west of the Roman road, between Kaims Castle and Strageath. The position gave views over Strathearn and towards Kaims. Its excavated plan also offers an unusual glimpse of how soldiers may have entered the tower itself.
Visit Westerton
📍 Location: Westerton, Perth and Kinross. National Grid reference NN 87309 14593.
👁 What survives: A cropmark and excavated site on a low rise; no standing timber structure.
⭐ Best for: An unusual entrance to a roadside tower.
🥾 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.
🏛 Explore nearby: Gask Ridge watchtower guide · Strageath Roman Fort
Google Map location · Trove site record · HES scheduled monument record · 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 approximately 10 metres precision; it is not a new survey.
Westerton 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 cropmark and excavated site on a low rise; no standing timber structure. |
| Roadside position | West of the road, following the excavation report. |
| Possible communication | Westerton → Strageath |
| Garrison | The unit and number of soldiers are not securely known. |
The remains and their investigation
Hanson and Friell recorded a single ditch enclosing an area about 14 metres across, with a causeway to the south-east. The ditch had a steeper outer face and a gentler inner slope, a form often called a Punic ditch in archaeological reports. Four post pits marked the timber structure, whose plan was elongated rather than square.
Two parallel slots extended towards the enclosure entrance from the front post settings. The excavators interpreted these as supports associated with steps or a ladder giving access to the upper level. That is a reasoned reconstruction from the ground evidence, not a surviving stairway. Disturbance in the post pits indicated deliberate removal of the main uprights when the tower was dismantled.
Only one small, degraded pottery fragment was recovered. It was considered possibly part of a mortarium, a Roman mixing bowl, with a fabric compatible with the Flavian period. Its identification and disturbed ditch context mean that it cannot supply an exact date. The excavation report's explicit location west of the road is followed in this article's diagram.
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.
Westerton on the Gask Ridge
Possible communication with the forts
Woolliscroft’s study identifies a direct view between Westerton and Strageath. This could have allowed a warning to reach the fort without passing through a chain of intermediate towers.
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: Westerton — NRHE 25377 — national site record, location and archaeological references.
HES scheduled monument record — SM2832. HES designation records are available through Trove.
Hanson and Friell (1995): Westerton, a Roman watchtower on the Gask frontier — 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.
