Quote:
Originally Posted by hollydog
According to "Mackenzie''s History of Northumberland" a Mr John Shanks while forming an embankment discovered an ancient causeway one foot below the surface about two and a half feet wide, strongly paved and running in a straight line from Amble to the old bed of the Coquet, possibly Roman origin. He also refers to a village leaving circular foundation marks, and some monastic ruins.
Credit to J M Hobrough for the above.
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Well, this got me completely bamboozled
I looked in Mackenzie, nothing, so looked at McInnes and there it was:
"I glean from Mackenzie's history of Northumberland, the following items about Amble in British and Roman time, though I am a little dubious as to their correctness. The writer of that history says; "Foundations of buildings of undressed stones, and built in a circular form without mortar, after the manner of the ancient Britons, have been found here....And that when the late Mr John Shanks was forming an embankment, he discovered an ancient causeway, one foot below the surface, about two and a half feet wide, strongly paved, and running in a straight direction from Amble to the old bed of the Coquet, probably of Roman origin...." I have enquired of one of the oldest inhabitants about this, and he confirms the account of the causeway, though he seems to think it was a very rough and small pathway. It may have been Roman, however, but this can be mere conjecture, unless it was again exposed to view." Get Digging!!
Mackenzie did his history in 1811 and McInnes was writing in 1880 so an old Ambler could have a memory of it.