Along parts of Hadrian's Wall
One of our main aims for this holiday was to see some of Hadrian's Wall, and so two days were spent doing just that! Traveling along the A39, we visited, and enjoyed a fair stretch of it. Unfortunately, many of the images were taken during the brightest part of the day and are rather de-saturated. At least some record shots!
In A.D. 122 the Emperor Hadrian ordered his soldiers to build a wall between Roman Britain and Scotland. The wall ran from Wallsend in the east to Bowness on the Solway Firth. You can still walk along parts of Hadrian's Wall today. In A.D. 140, the Romans added another wall further north. It's called the Antonine Wall.
The area called Steel Rigg is along some of the most scenic sections of Hadrian’s Wall.
Part of the Roman Fort at Birdoswald, with (BELOW), some beautiful scenery nearby.
A few facts about Birdoswald:
Birdoswald was once an area of bog and forest. The Romans had to clear and drain the land before building work could begin.
The defences of Birdoswald are extremely well preserved and the site is one of the best places to see the very first Hadrian’s Wall, which was built of turf.
The military unit that left the most enduring legacy at Birdoswald were the Dacians, who travelled with the Roman army from modern-day Romania. They carved symbols from their homeland into the fort walls and worshipped local deities as well as Roman gods.
Several burial urns were recently excavated from a Roman cemetery at Birdoswald. Studies have revealed the cremated remains of women and children as well as male soldiers.
Walltown Crags
The wall along Walltown Crags. Quite a feat to build on the top of these crags, I would think, also showing how advanced the Romans really were.
Vindolanda is one of Europe's most important Roman archaeological sites. It is situated on the Stanegate Road, one mile south of Hadrian’s Wall and is managed and owned by The Vindolanda Charitable Trust.
The site itself comprises nine forts built on top of each other. Soldiers from all over the Roman Empire, including Belgium, Germany and France were garrisoned here. The visible stone fort dates to the third century and the impressive remains include the fort walls, the headquarters building, the Commanding Officer’s house, granaries and barracks. Extensive remains of the extramural settlement lie just west of the fort with buildings lining a main street. These include houses, shops, a tavern and a bath house.
The top find from the site, and also on display in the museum are the Vindolanda writing tablets – voted Britain’s ‘Top Treasure’. The small wooden postcard sized documents recorded the daily life of people who used to live here including letters from soldiers asking for socks and underwear, a birthday party invitation to the Commanding Officer’s wife, requests for payment, lists of goods supplied and troop deployments.
While we stood watching, this ring was unearthed.
Housesteads Roman Fort (below) was a large infantry fort constructed along the line of Hadrian’s Wall. It was garrisoned by a regiment recruited from Belgium and remained occupied for around 300 years.
A fort was built in stone at the Housesteads Roman Fort site around AD 124 overlying the original Broad Wall foundation and Turret 36B. The fort was repaired and rebuilt several times, its northern defences being particularly prone to collapse.
By the end of Hadrian’s reign (AD 138), the great Wall was complete, and Housesteads was one of 15 forts and part of a total garrison of nearly 10,000 men along its length. The surviving plan of the main buildings and barracks dates largely to this time.
Within four years of Hadrian’s death, however, his successor, Antoninus Pius (r.138–61), began the construction of a second wall (the Antonine Wall), across the Forth–Clyde isthmus in central Scotland. It is often thought that Hadrian’s Wall was then abandoned, but recent excavations from Housesteads found no evidence for this.
Although most of the Tungrians are indeed known to have occupied Castlecary Fort on the Antonine Wall, it seems that part of the garrison may have remained here. An altar to Jupiter and the god Cocidius from Housesteads, dedicated by soldiers of the Second Augustan Legion said to be on ‘garrison duty’, may date to this period.
Sycamore Gap - it's become an iconic image associated with Hadrian's Wall. The familiar gaps along Hadrian’s Wall in the Whin Sill are essentially channels, naturally chipped away by vast amounts of meltwater flowing beneath the ice sheets that once covered the area.
Nowadays, the tree has become something of a star. Most notably as the scene-stealer in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner, TV series Vera starring Brenda Blethyn and Robson Green’s More Tales from Northumberland.
If it's there, someone has to climb it!
More Housesteads.
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