Blatobulgium

About

Blatobulgium was a Roman fort, located at the modern-day site known as Birrens, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. It protected the main western road to Scotland. It was one of the "outpost forts" outside the Roman Empire when the frontier was on Hadrian's Wall and was located about 11 miles from the Castra Exploratorum fort (Netherby, Cumbria).

Name: Blatobulgium is recorded in the Antonine Itinerary. The name derives from the Brittonic roots *blāto- 'bloom, blossom' or *blāto- (from earlier *mlāto-), 'flour' and *bolgo-, 'bag, bulge'. The name may mean 'flowery hillock' or 'flowery hollow'. However, as there are granaries at the fort, Blatobulgium may be a nickname meaning 'Flour Sacks'.

History: There are several camps near Birrens at least one of which was first occupied in the Flavian period from 79 AD onwards probably during the Agricolan campaigns, when its internal buildings were presumably of timber. Under Hadrian when the frontier was established on Hadrian's Wall soon after 122, a new fort was constructed as an outpost fort on the site of a late 1st century fortlet with central timber buildings and a large western annexe. The visible fort and its internal buildings date...