Antonine Wall

On the 23rd January the Antonine Wall, which connects the Forth and Clyde in Scotland and was built in the 2nd Century as the furthest north west boundary of the Roman Empire, was put forward by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on behalf of Historic Scotland as the UK’s latest nomination for World Heritage Site status.  The proposed site is being nominated as an extension to the trans-national Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, which includes Hadrian’s Wall and the Upper German Raetian Limes.

As part of the process of applying for World Heritage Status, Historic Scotland were required to identify a buffer zone around the site.  The purpose of this buffer zone was to be to protect the landscape setting of the proposed World Heritage Site. Additionally, the buffer zone may also be used to define where landscape management schemes might be introduced, to improve the setting of the site and to facilitate appreciation and understanding by the public.  Historic Scotland employed the Glasgow team at LUC to advise on the location and extent of this buffer zone.

With no established methodology in place as to how a buffer zone should be established for World Heritage Sites, the team developed their own methodology based upon visibility to and from the proposed Site, and analysis of the land use setting.  This methodology was based upon five key stages:

• Firstly, GIS inter-visibility with the surrounding landscape was used to identify the areas of almost-continuous visibility of the wall, and this was used to define a draft buffer boundary. This boundary was then refined through site survey work. The distance of this boundary from the wall north and south varied considerably depending upon local topography.

• A series of principles were then established to guide decisions as to which areas should be included or excluded from the buffer zone. This included removing from the buffer zone urban areas, except where the wall runs through a large urban open space, and large industrial sites close to the Wall who land use is unlikely to change.

• Once these principles had been applied, a draft buffer zone was then drawn up following permanent and defensible boundaries in the landscape, such as roads and established field boundaries. Where defensible boundaries were not found, other recognisable features such as rivers and streams were used.

• The next stage was then to review this draft boundary against Local Plans maps and policies, such as green belt and nature conservation designations. The draft buffer zone boundary was then refined to follow other existing local plan boundaries that would offer additional policy support, and to exclude areas marked for urban expansion.

• The final boundary was then confirmed through fieldwork along the length of the Wall.

Once this buffer zone had been established, a series of planning and management recommendations were also drawn up by the team and submitted, along with the proposed buffer zones, to Historic Scotland for the World Heritage Site application. The team involved at Glasgow all enjoyed carrying out this project for Historic Scotland and are looking forward to the application being approved later this year!