Projects on the Wall

The Rediscovering the Antonine Wall project was a four- year project, from 2019 to 2023. The project received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Kelvin Valley & Falkirk LEADER Programme, and the managing partners for the Antonine Wall.

The Antonine Wall is an accessible Roman monument with ample opportunity for interpretation and involvement. However, research undertaken in the run up to this project identified that local awareness of the Antonine Wall was limited and that generally, only those with an interest in heritage were engaging with the Wall. The project became the first pan wall project to raise awareness of the Antonine Wall, primarily amongst local communities but also with visitors.

The project raised awareness of the Antonine Wall through the creation of new and interesting attractions along the length of the wall, developing new educational resources, social media pages and community engagement initiatives. This has included:

• Two large Roman head sculptures at Lambhill Stables and Nethercroy
  
• Five replica Roman distance slabs
• Creation of five Roman themed play parks
• Reshooting of a 1960’s film charting the route of the wall to create a new film: The Antonine Wall: A 37-Mile Landmark
• Virtual tour with 360-degree views
• A series of community led engagement projects
• Creation of school resources, including a series of Antonine Wall comics created with schools
• Anthology of short stories based on the Wall

You can view the end of project evaluation here.

In 2022, The Antonine Wall was chosen as one of three participants in the UNESCO UK Local to Global project. The other sites chosen were the  Biosffer Dyfi UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the Black Country UNESCO Global Geopark. 

The programme's aims were to create a community of best practice in UK UNESCO sites that promoted skills, confidence, and capacity-building. Outputs from the project included:

• Creation of an Antonine Wall Audience Development Plan
• Antonine Wall Fundraising Strategy
• Web audit
• Social media review

A West Dunbartonshire Antonine Wall Community Map was also created in conjunction with a group of community members aged over 60 years, all who live locally to the Wall. The community members were invited to attend workshops where they learnt more about the wall, shared their own stories, and participated in creative activities. Participants also went on two guided short walks around the section of the wall. It was from this participatory activity that the map was then created in partnership with artist Neil Thomson.