Ardoch Fort Traditional Cache
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Parking for the cache is at N56 16.282 W003 52.198, cross the road and enter the wood to search for the cache. There is one fence to climb over on the way to the cache.
This cache is located near Ardoch Fort,one of the most northerly forts in the Roman Empire.
The Roman fort at Ardoch is one of the best preserved in the Roman Empire. The remains comprise a rectangular area of around two hectares, surrounded by a rampart and up to five ditches in places. It was occupied by the Roman army on several occasions, and is located by the Roman road which ran north from the Forth-Clyde isthmus.
Ardoch Fort once covered six acres and boasts 7ft (2.1m)ramparts and six deep trenches. It was part of a string of Roman forts and watchtowers known as the Gask Ridge, which is thought to have stretched from Glenbank, near Dunblane, to just north of Perth on the River Tay, but may have gone farther.
The frontier was a direct ancestor of Hadrian’s Wall, which was built about 50-years later, and archaeologists now believe that it could be the earliest example of a fortified Roman road in Europe. The fort is still frequented by Romans from time to time, namely the Antonine Guard, a modern day re-enactment society. Visit their webpage (visit link) and (visit link) and (visit link) and (visit link)
After finding the cache you should park at N56 16.045 W003 52.640 to view the fort itself.
If you cross the road from the parking place at the fort and walk over the road bridge you will be able to see the Pack Horse Bridge. A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapets so as not to interfere with the horse's panniers. Packhorse bridges were often built on the trade routes (often called packhorse routes) that formed major transport arteries across Europe and Great Britain until the coming of the turnpike roads and canals in the eighteenth century.
The cache is a cylindrical container and contains a log book and small swaps. Parking for the cache is at N56 16.282 W003 52.198, cross the road and enter the wood to search for the cache. The cache is not located in the fort itself but just over the fence from it. The fort actually extended all the way up to the road where the parking for the cache is. The more obvious defensive earthworks are by the Southern end of the location. Just how extensive the fort is can be seen on the OS map here
(visit link)
* Congratulations to Geoarab for FTF *
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zbffl gerr ebbgf.
Treasures
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