Witch Knowe stands north of the Roman road between Gask House and Moss Side. Its evocative name belongs to the site's later history. The evidence for a Roman tower comes from the earthworks and excavation, not from traditions about witches or earlier discoveries of human remains.
Visit Witch Knowe
📍 Location: Witch Knowe, Perth and Kinross. National Grid reference NN 9976 1953.
👁 What survives: A surviving ditched earthwork and outer bank, with visibility affected by vegetation.
⭐ Best for: A Roman tower beneath a later name.
🥾 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.
Witch Knowe 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 surviving ditched earthwork and outer bank, with visibility affected by vegetation. |
| Roadside position | North of the Roman road. |
| Possible communication | Witch Knowe → Raith → Strageath |
| Garrison | The unit and number of soldiers are not securely known. |
The remains and their investigation
Christison's investigation in 1900 identified four post holes outlining a rectangle about 11 by 9 feet, approximately 3.35 by 2.74 metres. Dark material in the post holes contained small fragments of charred wood. A southern causeway gave access from the direction of the road.
The excavator described a substantial ditch, approximately 14 feet wide and 6 feet deep, with an outer mound of upcast. The scale of the ditch should not be confused with the much smaller timber building. Later survey also corrected an earlier account of the bank's survival, recording an outer bank around the full circuit.
Reports of bones and an urn pre-date the excavation, but their context is poorly known. Christison did not find human remains during his own investigation. The surviving account therefore offers no sound basis for linking a burial or a supposed burning of witches to the Roman tower. The tower is generally placed in the late first-century Gask system, without a securely dated foundation event.
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.
Witch Knowe on the Gask Ridge
Possible communication with the forts
In Woolliscroft’s proposed network, the ridge-top towers as far east as Midgate could communicate with Raith. Raith could then relay a signal to Strageath. The diagram shows this possible two-stage connection for Witch Knowe; it does not claim a demonstrated direct view to the fort.
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: Witch Knowe — NRHE 25991 — national site record, location and archaeological references.
HES scheduled monument record — SM1616. HES designation records are available through Trove.
Christison (1901): Witch Knowe, report of the 1900 excavation — 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.
