ABOUT THE BOOK

The Road to Mons Graupius records a journey from the Scottish Borders to the edge of the Highlands along the route of a Roman road. On the way, Alan Montgomery, author of Walking the Antonine Wall, searches for evidence of the first century Roman invasion of northern Britain led by the renowned general Gnaeus Julius Agricola, which concluded in a confrontation with the indigenous tribes next to a hill called Mons Graupius.

As well as featuring the author’s encounters with some of Scotland’s most intriguing ancient monuments, it also examines the account of this invasion written by the Roman author Tacitus, a unique text that has fascinated and frustrated Scots through the ages and inspired a fanatical hunt for the elusive site of Scotland’s first recorded battle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Montgomery was born in Glasgow and raised in Edinburgh, and his lifelong love of history was largely inspired by regular childhood visits to Scotland’s historical monuments. After studying History of Art at the University of Glasgow, he moved to London and spent many years working in the art world. He returned to academia in 2010, achieving an MA in Classical Civilisation at Birkbeck, University of London, that included a thesis focusing on the post-Roman history of the Antonine Wall. Next, he completed a PhD at the same institution which investigated eighteenth- century attitudes towards Scotland’s Roman past.

Elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2018, he is the author of Classical Caledonia: Roman History and Myth in Eighteenth-Century Scotland (EUP, 2020) and Walking the Antonine Wall: A Journey from East to West Scotland (Tippermuir, 2022).

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