The fort at Cramond was located on the River Almond at the point where it flows into the Forth. In Roman times, there was probably a natural harbour here. One suggested interpretation is that Cramond formed a chain of Lothian forts along with Carriden and Inveresk. The fort was established around 140 during the building of the Antonine Wall, and remained in use until around 170 when the Romans retreated south to Hadrian's Wall. When the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus began the last major Roman incursion into Scotland from 205 to 214, the fort was reoccupied and enlarged. Throughout these periods of occupation a civilian settlement seems to have existed outside the fort, and some native occupation of the fort seems to have taken place after the time of Severus into the 4th/5th century and during the early Sub-Roman period. Several Roman inscriptions have been found around Crammond.
The ground plan of part of the fort is laid out in an area of open parkland. Here one can see headquarters building, granaries, workshop, together with other buildings, restored in outline. Information panels at the site link the findings of the last 50 years of excavations and recreate life in the former Roman headquarters and bathhouse.
References:Doune Castle was originally built in the thirteenth century, then probably damaged in the Scottish Wars of Independence, before being rebuilt in its present form in the late 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (c. 1340–1420), the son of King Robert II of Scots, and Regent of Scotland from 1388 until his death. Duke Robert"s stronghold has survived relatively unchanged and complete, and the whole castle was traditionally thought of as the result of a single period of construction at this time. The castle passed to the crown in 1425, when Albany"s son was executed, and was used as a royal hunting lodge and dower house.
In the later 16th century, Doune became the property of the Earls of Moray. The castle saw military action during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Glencairn"s rising in the mid-17th century, and during the Jacobite risings of the late 17th century and 18th century.