In Morocco on a cloudless, hot dry day we visited the Roman Empire's most south westerly frontier close to the Sahara Desert. Now, a month later we were traipsing around high moorland in northern England in a wet, gloomy evening exploring what was the empires most northerly point for quite a few hundred years, Hadrian's Wall.
Our location was Housteads Fort, the best preserved of all the forts that followed the course of the wall. Arriving in the last afternoon when almost all the tourists had left for the day made the visit particularly enjoyable. We marvelled at the quality of the stonework that was left, mainly foundations tracing out the wall, the soldiers barracks, kitchens, baths, the administrative centre and the villa belonging to the garrison commander in the middle.
After exploring the fort until closing time, we then walked along the wall for a short distance watching it snake off into the distance across hill and dale.
Eventually we reached the River Irthing where the ruins of the Roman bridge could be found almost 100 meters from the present day river (which has shifted it's course over 19 centuries). A pretty modern bridge has been built to take the pathway that follows the wall over the river.
Walking along the remains of Hadrian's Wall gives you an appreciation of the sophistication of the Roman Empire. It's definitely worth a visit and a walk which gives you an appreciation of the effort and engineering that must have gone into its construction almost 2000 years ago.
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