I reside in the Upper Clydesdale area of South Lanarkshire in Scotland and for some time now I have been attempting to trace Roman roads in the area which are not on the official historical record by using rod dowsing firstly to find an unrecorded road and then follow it to find where it is going.
Dowsing is not, in my opinion, very complicated and I have found that most people can effectively dowse and that the crossing of the rods has a scientific explanation and I am becoming more and more convinced that in the case of Roman sites the 'magnetic' response causing the rods to cross is due to clay used extensively by the Romans in foundations of buildings and roads and because the Romans were so precise in how they did things then dowsing gives a precise pattern of activity. This can be easilly proven by dowsing over any known Roman site. For example known Roman roads in Clydesdale usually, give a characteristic response across the width of the road, most commonly 5.5m, but with approx 1m wide ditches on either side. This same response sequence is obtainable for the full length of the road.
Questions in this forum have been asked about the possibility of the Romans being active in the Leadhills/Wanlockhead, known mining area, but for which there is no known Roman presence. I have located in that area, from dowsing what I believe to be standard Roman roads which on occassion lead to 3m cuttings on the more severe gradients and which in several cases lead to what are obviously dissused mine sites. These roads and sites might have been used by subsequent generations of miners but the indications are, if I am right, that the Romans were the initiators.
I believe the resistance to dowsing by archaeological professionals is being overcome with even Glasgow University Archaeological Section admitting the use of it but only as an indicator that further archaeological investigation might be called for.
If anyone has any experiance or thoughts about this situation I would be pleased to discuss.
Ken. Fawell.
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