Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall is a stone and turf fortification built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland , between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde . Representing the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire , it spanned approximately and was about high and wide . Security was bolstered by a deep ditch on the northern side . The barrier was the second of two " great walls " created by the Romans in Northern Britain . Its ruins are less evident than the better known Hadrian ' s Wall to the south . Construction began in 142 AD at the order of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius , and took about 12 years to complete . Pressure from the Caledonians may have led Antoninus to send the empire ' s troops further north . The wall was protected by 16 forts with a number of small fortlets between them ; troop movement was facilitated by a road linking all the sites known as the Military Way . The soldiers who built the wall commemorated the construction and their struggles with the Caledonians in a number of decorative slabs , twenty of which still survive . Despite this auspicious start the wall was abandoned after only 20 years , and the garrisons relocated back to Hadrian ' s Wall . In 208 Emperor Septimius Severus re - established legions at the wall and ordered repairs ; this has led to the wall being referred to as the Severan Wall . However , the occupation ended only a few years later , and the wall was never fortified again . Most of the wall and its associated fortifications have been destroyed over time , but some remains are still visible . Many of these have come under the care of Historic Scotland and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee . Location and construction . Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius ordered the construction of the Antonine Wall around 142 . Quintus Lollius Urbicus , governor of Roman Britain at the time , initially supervised the effort , which took about twelve years to complete . The wall stretches ( 39 miles ) from Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the Firth of Clyde to Carriden near Bo ' ness on the Firth of Forth . The wall was intended to extend Roman territory and dominance by replacing Hadrian ' s Wall ( 100 miles ) to the south , as the frontier of " Britannia " . But while the Romans did establish many forts and temporary camps further north of the wall in order to protect their routes to the north of Scotland , they did not conquer the Caledonians , and the Antonine Wall suffered many attacks . The Romans called the land north of the wall " Caledonia " , though in some contexts the term may refer to the whole area north of Hadrian ' s Wall . The Antonine Wall was shorter than Hadrian ' s Wall and built of turf on a stone foundation rather than of stone , but it was still an impressive achievement . The stone foundations and wing walls of the original forts demonstrate that the original plan was to build a stone wall similar to Hadrian ' s Wall , but this was quickly amended . As built , the wall was typically a bank , about four metres ( 13 feet ) high , made of layered turves and occasionally earth with a wide ditch on the north side , and a military way on the south . The Romans initially planned to build forts every , but this was soon revised to every , resulting in a total of nineteen forts along the wall . The best preserved but also one of the smallest forts is Rough Castle Fort . In addition to the forts , there are at least 9 smaller fortlets , very likely on roman mile spacings , which formed part of the original scheme , some of which were later replaced by forts . The most visible fortlet is Kinneil , at the eastern end of the Wall , near Bo ' ness . In addition to the line of the Wall itself there are a number of coastal forts both in the East ( e . g . Inveresk ) and West ( Outerwards and Lurg Moor ) , which should be considered as outposts and / or supply bases to the Wall itself . In addition a number of forts farther north were brought back into service in the Gask Ridge area , including Ardoch , Strageath , Bertha and probably Dalginross and Cargill . Abandonment . The wall was abandoned after only 20 years , when the Roman legion s withdrew to Hadrian ' s Wall in 162 ( although there is evidence to suggest that they left the wall in 158 / 60 , its reliability is unclear ) , and over time reached an accommodation with the Brythonic tribes of the area who they fostered as the buffer states which would later become " The Old North " . After a series of attacks in 197 , Emperor Septimius Severus arrived in Scotland in 208 to secure the frontier , and repaired parts of the wall . Although this re - occupation only lasted a few years , the wall is sometimes referred to by later Roman historians as the Severan Wall . This led to later scholars like Bede mistaking references to the Antonine Wall for ones to Hadrian ' s Wall . Post - Roman history . Grim ' s Dyke . In medieval histories , such as the chronicles of John of Fordun , the wall is called " Gryme ' s dyke " . Fordun says that the name came from the grandfather of the imaginary king Eugenius son of Farquahar . This evolved over time into Graham ' s dyke – a name still found in Bo ' ness at the wall ' s eastern end – and then linked with Clan Graham . Of note is that Graeme in some parts of Scotland is a nickname for the devil , and Gryme ' s Dyke would thus be the Devil ' s Dyke , mirroring the name of the Roman Limes in Southern Germany often called ' Teufelsmauer ' . Grímr and Grim are bynames for Odin or Wodan , who might be credited with the wish to build earthworks in unreasonably short periods of time . This name is the same one found as " Grim ' s Ditch " several times in England in connection with early ramparts : for example , near Wallingford , Oxfordshire or between Berkhamsted ( Herts ) and Bradenham ( Bucks ) . Other names used by antiquarians include the Wall of Pius and the Antonine Vallum , after Antoninus Pius . Hector Boece in his 1527 " History of Scotland " called it the " wall of Abercorn " , repeating the story that it had been destroyed by Graham . World Heritage status . The UK government ' s nomination of the Antonine Wall for World Heritage status to the international conservation body UNESCO was first officially announced in 2003 . It has been backed by the Scottish Government since 2005 and by Scotland ' s then Culture Minister Patricia Ferguson since 2006 . It became the UK ' s official nomination in late January 2007 , and MSP s were called to support the bid anew in May 2007 . The Antonine Wall was listed as an extension to the World Heritage Site " Frontiers of the Roman Empire " on 7 July 2008 . Though the Antonine Wall is mentioned in the text , it does not appear on UNESCO ' s map of world heritage properties . Historic Scotland . Several individual sites along the line of the wall are in the care of Historic Scotland . These are : All sites are unmanned and open at all reasonable times . See also . Mapping the wall . The first capable effort to systematically map the Antonine Wall was undertaken in 1764 by William Roy , of Ordnance Survey fame . He provided accurate and detailed drawings of its remains , and where the wall has been destroyed by later development , his maps and drawings are now the only reliable record of it . In fiction . The Northern Wall is depicted in some of Rosemary Sutcliff ' s historical fiction novels ; as a fully functioning outpost of Roman power in " The Mark of the Horse Lord " , and as an abandoned ruin in " Frontier Wolf " . In Max Brooks ' s post - apocalyptic novel World War Z , the Antonine Wall marks the line at which the British establish their defense against the zombies and the beginning of their free zone .