"The coast-to-coast wall was built under the orders of Roman emperor Hadrian in just a few years from AD122 (the Wall’s bus service is very cutely called route AD122), at the northern limits of their then-empire, to keep the scots in their place. After the Romans pulled out of Britain a couple of hundred years later, Hadrian’s Wall was raided (sorry, recycled) over the centuries for building material, so there are no full-height 15-foot sections left, but a number of the forts, milecastles and turrets along it have been excavated, so there’s plenty to see, including some good museums". Information prepared by my co walker Shirley
Next day up and breakfasted we headed off with P ( in his gumboots)up to the top of Steel Rig crags
then down and up to Peel crags, great views along this section with crags and lakes and high cliffs
we also had walks through forests, a bit of up and down until we got to the highest point on the walk after which it was all down hill.
we stopped at Housesteads fort and had a good look round, Oh I forgot to mention the Roman army museum we visited the day before which was really good with an excellent 3D eagle eye video view of the wall.
A lot of ruins to explore.
Some very black clouds and it looked like we were going to get soaked but it all went around us.
We had to walk through boggy ground for the last 3 miles or so and P's gumboots came into their own and I was using my stick for the first time on the walk and it was great for checking the boggy bits depth.We walked 11.56 miles in 7 hours and P and Shirl were both dragging their heels by the end of it and asking are we there yet.
We stayed the night in a B & B on a farm, the owner took us to the local Chollerford pub for dinner. At the pub were a group including 2 New Zealanders and they were staying at the same B & B, small world.
Up and more walking the next day. We went to Chesters fort which has a dig going on for more roman artefacts, it was here that postcards belonging to the roman soldiers.
Then we got a bus to our car ( left at the Twice Brewed Inn) and went to http://www.vindolanda.com/
Then sadly it was time to head home. A great time really glad I went, I would recommend it.
2 comments:
The postcards mentioned were written on thin slivers of wood and about half the size of modern postcards, all sorts of messages on them from Thanks for the nice warm socks, and shopping lists, to the commander's wife's invitation to her birthday party. Written in Latin, buried in the bog and preserved for all time!
- The co-walker
Love the bit about the postcards! Good on you for keeping up the fun stuff :-) And the other co-walker? No more blog entries? Ropey, where are you?
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