Rispain Camp

About Rispain Camp

Rispain Camp was excavated in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Archaeologists believe that this impressive fortified site, with its unusually deep ditches and views over surrounding rich farmland, was not a Roman Camp, as the Victorians thought. Instead it is thought to be a native fortified farmstead enclosing three roundhouses and dating to the mid 1st Century AD. The name “Rispain” comes from the local Cumbric language (akin to Old Welsh) “Rhwos-pen”, meaning head of the cultivated country. The Romans called the native people here the “Novantae”. We know there was trading and contact with the Roman Empire, even if there is no evidence of military camps south of the Bladnoch. This area is abundant with evidence of Iron Age occupation, such as hilltop fortified sites at the Fell of Barhullion, and crannogs – loch dwellings on piles – in many of the inland lochs of the Machars.