CHAPTER VI
The Annexes of the Fort and their Buildings
IN a number of the Roman forts excavated in Scotland—at Castlecary, Rough Castle, Lyne, and perhaps Camelon—we find attached to the main work a subsidiary area, not necessarily, and indeed seldom, rectangular, but fortified to some extent with rampart and ditches. To this area the term 'annexe' has usually been applied. At Newstead we have three such annexes, all somewhat irregular in shape. They lie on the east, south, and west sides of the fort respectively. Each annexe is unconnected with either of the others. The straight line of the defences of the fort forms its boundary on one side. The rest of its perimeter has the shape of a curve.
The west annexe probably enclosed an area of about seven acres, although its exact boundary on the north could not be determined, any more than the precise position of its gates. At its largest extent it certainly dated from the Agricolan period. It had been strongly protected by a line of ditches, varying from two to four in number. Behind these was some trace of a rampart lying on cobble stones. A considerable portion of the ditches was cleared out. From the pottery they contained, it seemed probable that they belonged to the earliest period, and the correctness of this surmise was proved by the discovery that the two inner ditches had passed under the line of the wall of the later fort, and had been linked up with the ditches of the earliest fort. The outer ditch, on the other hand, was connected with the later system. At a subsequent period, when the fort was reduced in size, the size of the annexe appears to have been reduced also, a double ditch being cut in a westerly direction from a point north of the west gate of the fort. One arm had seemingly been carried into the line of the earlier annexe ditches. The other, after running some distance towards the west, was turned sharply round to the north and passed through the sole block of buildings found within the annexe, a block to be described presently. A
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