The Antonine Wall (named after the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius) was an impressive barrier with a height of 4 meters, 4.3 meters wide, with a large ditch on the north side for reinforcement of defense and a network of roads on the south side for the efficient movement of troops. It was 63 km (39 miles) long, with 19 forts every 3.3 km.

The Antonine Wall was protected by 16 forts with 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 with decorative slabs, twenty of which survive.

The Romans began building the Antonine Wall in 142 AD. At the time it was finished, it marked the northern edge of the Roman Empire. Beyond it, the rest of northern Scotland was under the control of the Caledonian tribes. The wall was made from heaping up enormous piles of earth and turf and had deep ditches to make it easier to defend.

Antonine Wall, Roman frontier barrier in Britain, extending about 36.5 miles (58.5 km) across Scotland between the River Clyde and the Firth of Forth. The wall was built in the years after ad 142 on the orders of the emperor Antoninus Pius by the Roman army under the command of the governor Lollius Urbicus (Quintus Lollius Urbicus).