It was carved by Roman hands during one of the empire’s excursions to Caledonia, and survived the tests of time long after the legions were lost history.
But though the artefact was known to the people who came afterwards, it became lost to the official record - until an enthusiast of Roman History decided to seek it out and found it still intact, just a mile from his home in Edinburgh.
The ‘Eagle of Ingliston’ is a carved stone featuring the Imperial eagle which was first recorded in Scotland in 1699.
The stone, originally thought to be part of a Roman milestone, was mentioned by Sir Robert Sibald as one of three he had, though it was not in his possession.
Instead, the relic had been re-purposed and was part of the gable wall of one of his tenant’s houses, forming part of the exterior brickwork.
In 1975 it was recorded again during a survey, still part of the house and intact. But this year, when local history buff Andrew Wallace decided to track it down, he could find no trace of the Roman remains.
He said: “So what I've been doing the website and making a map of the Roman artifacts which have been found in Scotland, and I discovered on the Historic Environment Scotland (HES) website that there was something called the ‘Ingliston milestone.’
“It was a carving of an eagle in the side of the farmhouse, but nobody's mentioned this anywhere, although it's in the database as being part of the farmhouse.
“So I set out trying to find it, and wrote to the National Farmers Union, because they now own the building that the eagle was in.”
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He added: “I cycled round all the farmhouses and found the right one, but it had been upgraded and the walls had been plastered and then whitewashed, so the eagle was gone and nowhere to be seen.”
Mr Wallace contacted the Corstorphine Heritage Centre to find out if they could help, but it was only during a visit to their museum that he stumbled across the stone eagle, which had been in their possession for several decades.
“I was looking around, and on the floor was the stone, and I was looking at it, and I thought ‘that's the carving!’
“So the heritage people dug out all the paperwork, and found the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland gave it to them in 1978. But whatever happened, they never updated the government record – so it was ‘lost’ to official history’.
Mr Wallace has now written to HES to update the record, meaning the whereabouts of the Ingliston eagle will no longer be a mystery.
However, he does not think the description of it being a milestone is correct.
He said: “There is a Roman milestone near Ingliston, but this isn’t part of it.
“The Glasgow Road, which was made by the Romans, runs nearby so it’s possible it came from some structure associated with that.
“It’s maybe even a stone from the gate of a fort, as there’s also one in the area. While the Romans made their forts from turf and wood, they did make the gateposts from stone, so anything is possible.
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