Cardean
On the Dean Water, 22 km NW of Dundee. The Roman fort, discovered by aerial photography, has been shown by recent excavation to have measured internally over 180 m E-W. It had a turf rampart 6 m wide, two ditches on the W side, one on the S, three on the N, and four on the E side. The ditches averaged 3 m in width except for the two outer ditches on the E, which were 6 and 8 m wide. The span of the E defenses, from the inner edge of the rampart to the outer lip of the fourth ditch was 45 m. The internal buildings were of timber.
Three of the four entrances (E, W, S) have been examined. The entrance gap in the rampart was ca. 12 m wide, and the gap in the two inner ditch-ends at E, W entrances 22.5-30 m wide. The two inner ditches combined into looped ends on either side of the E and W entrance gaps. These looped ends contained much Samian and coarse-ware pottery, and fragments of a fluted glass cup, all of the late 1st c.
Cardean was one of the screen of auxiliary forts N of Inchtuthil, the legionary fortress on the Tay. Their occupation lasted for only a few years, ending in or just after A.D. 86, the date of the six latest coins found at Inchtuthil.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJRS 45 (1965) 83.
A. S. ROBERTSON