Looking South : Boulder Field Crossed by Roman Road

© Kanovium Project

Leave the car parking area and walk left up the field wall, follow an easily seen sunken green trackway, which appears to be the last visible fragment of the Roman road to be seen before it negotiated the ravine to the coast. Why is the track sunken and not cambered in the Roman manner?  It is so steep here it is unlikely that an enbankment ‘the agger’ could be constructed, or possibly any Roman metalling would have been washed down the steep slope many centuries ago, add use by later carts and sledges and the surface would have been very eroded indeed.  Several hundred years ago the Welsh used sledges, these had been dragged by horses etc, and could cut quite deep ruts in rock surfaces, which has been possibly commented on at Bryn y Gefeiliau fort.  You reach this flat area after a stiff climb, many stones both erected by man and natural are to be seen, this gives an interesting hint into the amount of work involved in making a highway across the lower slopes of Drosgl, Drum and Foel Dduarth mountains.  To construct the terrace of the road all these stones would have had to of been absolutely removed, it must have been an awesome task, but one certainly not beyond the Roman soldier, and depending which of the two possible routes are definitely Roman, both lanes would have required an equal amount of boulder shifting, and don’t forget this is before the days of explosives.  It should be pointed out that while the road surface often shows very old cobbles, it is still used by modern farm traffic, and modern gravel repairs are very much in evidence throughout all sections of the road described here.  It should not be forgotten that only 100 years ago people still used the old road, it being preferable to the dangerous river ford and ferry at Conwy Estuary.  Also in some sections the road has a deep well cut ditch on the southern, uphill side of the road, this too is likely to be modern work.

More insights into Roman military psyche here, we know they could engage in such tasks, the ‘vallum’ is a huge double ditch system which is probably a demilitarized zone, runs to the south of Hadrian’s Wall, and this was something like 20 feet deep cut into basalt bedrock.  I have already mentioned that the people of North Wales may have offered some initial  resistance, but once certain of what they were actually up against it looks like they accepted the massively more aggressive and technically advanced culture of Rome.  So we have 500-900 troops just 8 Roman miles away at Kanovium, what are they going to do with their time? sure, they can keep tabs on the locals, they can extract taxes, but they needed something more time consuming, it is possible clearing a mountain of boulders like this is what kept them occupied, all over North Wales the ten or so fort garrisons would have been engaged in such tasks, (the forts were built first, followed by the roads) putting down the vital road infrastructure while keeping the men occupied, an army static is one that sees faults in it’s lot, therefore rebellion within auxiliary garrisons could be eliminated by keeping the men busy.  How did they shift these rocks without tractors or gunpowder? (I have seen machines struggle to remove such boulders, at Bryn y Gefeiliau) evidence from the vallum at Limestone Corner, near Chollerford suggests that wooden wedges had been hammered into cracks, if there was no cracks they cut them with iron tools, then boiling water was poured in, the boulders, the fragments  are cast down the hill, or possibly the smashed fragments are actually used to surface the road.  It is certain that the mountain slopes have been cleared of rocks, its is concievable such work could have been done in the earlier Bronze Age and later Medieval times, but it seems more likely the work of an organised army.  The sunken lane emerges just to the right of this image