Hadrian's Wall


Advertisement
Europe
June 5th 2014
Published: June 13th 2014
Edit Blog Post

After breakfast this morning, our hosts brought over some toys and books for Em which she was very pleased about. Then it was off to Hadrian’s Wall, just north of Carlisle. This was the northern frontier of the Roman Empire and Emperor Hadrian had it built to strengthen the defences against the “northern barbarians”. It stretched from the Scottish border in the west to Newcastle in the east and completely divided Britain from coast to coast. Some sections still remain and there is actually a walk which travels the full length of the original wall, about 75 miles.

We visited the section at Birdoswald near Gilsland which is the longest stretch remaining. There is a small museum at the site of one of the major forts built along the wall, of which the foundations can still be seen. Walking either side of the fort, there are two watchtowers, a signal tower, a ‘Milefort’ and the remains of a major bridge over the river Irthing. The wall was divided by small forts every mile (mileforts) with two watchtowers between every milefort. Each milefort housed the guards and provided training areas and sleeping quarters while the watchtowers just had a lower room for resting and a stairway to the top of the wall for the guards to patrol. Overall, the structure was massive in its scale and served its purpose well. Later emperors built other walls further north but could not hold the territory and always retreated to Hadrian’s wall.

We walked across the river, exploring the foundations of the stone bridge which was washed away and rebuilt three times. Lunch was a picnic on the bank of the Irthing river before returning through the field of cows and sheep in the rain. A fascinating day exploring the ruins of an ancient frontier.


Additional photos below
Photos: 5, Displayed: 5


Advertisement



Tot: 0.284s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0744s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb