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Shades of Empire: The Roman Presence in Scotland |
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The Romans pulled out of Scotland around AD 86. There have been several theories as to why this was the case, but one of the most widely accepted is that troops were needed to hold on to the strategically more important Danube lands, which were only about a week's march from Rome and were where the Romans suffered a series of defeats by the Dacians around this time.
After retreating from the Gask line, the Romans settled behind Hadrian's Wall, a new structure designed to keep the Picts at bay, constructed under the instruction of the Emperor Hadrian, traversing over 70 miles of land from the Solway to the Tyne, and having a fort every mile. The Romans ventured further north again in the year 142, with the intention of creating a permanent frontier at the narrow point between the Forth and Clyde, where a 37 mile turf wall was constructed with a 40ft ditch in front.
The Governor, Lollius Urbicus, named the wall after the 
© SCRAN |
incumbent Emperor Antonine, and parts of this Antonine Wall can still be seen today. This wall did not last however, and was abandoned less than 20 years later. The Romans retreated to Hadrian's Wall until, after the Picto-Scottish invasion of 367, it was finally abandoned as the first act of Roman withdrawal from Britain.
Perhaps, however, when thinking about the Roman impact on Scotland, what is really being discussed is the effects of not being colonised by them. That, in contrast to England, the relative lack of any lasting Roman influence in Scotland allowed the native tribes to come together themselves, thereby forming a cohesive national identity much earlier than in England.
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