26 September 2013 Bill Inglis - The Romans in Dunblane and Doune
Thu, Sep 26th 2013 at 12:00 am - 12:00 am
Local historian, Bill Inglis talked to the club about the Romans presence in the area
The Romans in Dunblane and Doune.
President Colin Strachan welcomed the speaker for the evening Bill Inglis and regular guest Andrew Hilley.
John Kilby announced that the crepe stall at the Dunblane Community Centre Fun Day had raised over £200 for the centre and thanked the members of QV School Interact Club for their willing and active participation in the event.
Local author and historian Bill Inglis then gave a most interesting talk on 'The Romans in Dunblane and Doune'; he told how Dunblane was at the frontier of the Roman Empire back in the first century AD and that it was on the route of the Roman Road northwards towards Perth.
Bill explained that the Romans found it difficult to conquer Scotland due to the large number of clans; the norm for the Romans was to capture the leaders, take them back to Rome and educate in the Roman ways and then re install to lead on behalf of Rome.
The Romans built forts to command the glens, basing 500 soldiers to control the areas. Smaller forts were built on the route of the road north, however many of the forts were prefabricated and as the Romans retreated these forts were removed leaving little evidence for the archaeologists.
Bill explained that the route of the road through Dunblane is still open to debate; there were forts at Glenbank and Ardoch but the route south to the Forth has yet to be defined.
In his vote of thanks, Ranald Shepherd reflected on the ways of the Roman armies from his own battlefield guide experiences and noted that the lively question and answer session showed how well the talk had been received by the members.
