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Cropmarks of temporary Roman camps discovered by CUCAP circa 1950. The larger camp covers much of the ground between Wester Cardean and Simprin farms, east of the Roman fort at Cardean (NO24NE0012). Continued aerial reconnaissance has established the course of most of the camp, all of the west side, circa 591 m (1940 ft) long, and parts of the east and north sides are known, the latter establishing a length of 838 m (2750 ft) east-west. These parts of the camp show as cropmarks, but there is a trace of it in Crow Wood, NO 3008 4603, where the rampart survives as a spread mound 7-8 m wide by 0.4 m high and circa 40 m long, discovered by the OS in 1970. It belongs to the class of very large camps, and fills a gap in the series, for no camps of this size have been previously known between Grassy Walls (Perth and Kinross) and Battledykes, Oathlaw (NO45NE0012). In January 1970, trial trenches dug by St Joseph, confirmed the existence of the Roman camp and discovered the possible existence of a second camp, centred NO 301 463, lying within its eastern half. The ditch of the second camp was traced for 309.37 m on both the northwest and southeast sides, some 434.35m apart. If the northeast side coincides with the large camp, the area of the small one is over 33 acres. The ditch, 2.43 m wide and 1.01 m deep, had been deliberately infilled. No gates were found.
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