Grindon School Roman Camp

The Grindon School Roman temporary camp survives as an upstanding monument. The rarity of temporary camps, and in particular examples with upstanding remains, identifies them as nationally important.

The monument includes Grindon School Roman temporary camp. It survives as a series of earthworks. This small camp lies in an unusual position, towards the bottom of the shallow valley of the Settlingstones Burn. The situation lacks any natural defences. The view from the camp is severely restricted to the north, and to a lesser extent to the south and west. However, the view to the east is open. The camp is approximately square in plan and measures 45m across internally. Details of the camp are difficult to discern due to the later ridge and furrow that extends across the site from north to south and masks earlier remains.

Modern farming activities have contributed to the erosion of the site. The best preserved sections of the rampart in the north and west are denuded and do not exceed 0.3m in height. At the north east and north west corners there are traces of an outer ditch which now measures only 0.1m in depth. Despite the small size of the camp, there is a gateway in the centre of each side. The remains of ploughed down external defences survive outside the north, east and west gateways as low mounds no more than 0.1m high. A modern ditch cuts diagonally across the north rampart.