Hadrian's Wall

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On Monday morning we had another traditional English breakfast which was delicious, except for the sausage. Then we headed off to Hadrian's Wall for a morning hike. The wall was started in the 2nd century and is now between 3 and 6 feet high. It is about 73 miles long and we hiked three of those miles. When the land goes up or down, so too does the wall, and sometimes it is a long, steep way up. There are also mile-castles every so often, but these are in ruins now. There might be a suggestion of an arch or the ground plan for a room and that is all that is left of the mile-castles. Along the wall is the tree that was used in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which is pretty cool. It sits down in one of the valleys with the wall behind it. We ended our hike at Housesteads Roman Fort and Museum. This fort was huge when it actually stood. Now it looks much like the mile-castles with a hint of a room here and a suggestion of a gate there, but it was still pretty awesome. We ate lunch in the coach - sandwiches, crisps, fruit, and chocolate from the hostel - and then we drove over to Vindolanda Roman Fort and Museum. This is that site of an on-going dig that has unearthed some of the most important artefacts from Roman times because the site is on or was on a peat bog that perfectly preserved everything - from shoes to letters. All of these are on display, not the original letters though, and there is even a crest from a soldier's helmet. Justin, one of the archaeologist who has been there for 15 or 16 years, told us how they go about digging up stuff and a little of the history of the site. Nine forts have sat on this location, the earliest of wood and working up to stone. It was a pretty cool ending to our first house trip, and we were all glad to get back to the flat. We ordered Chinese for dinner and spent the evening writing, reading, uploading photos, and relaxing. Today we are heading to campus for orientation and will be there til at least Thursday. Hopefully when we get back after that we will be able to spend more than one night in our beds at the flat.

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Photos

Milecastle 37
Recreating the arch.