Skip to main content

Hadrians Wall


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.

After a scrumptious dinner and relaxing night at a nearby Pub, we headed out the next morning to explore another part of the Wall near the little village of Gilsland.  Although just a few miles away from Housteads Fort, the much improved weather, together with a location in the lush valley of the River Irthing made for a completely different experience.  We followed the wall for 2km, through green paddocks full of sheep, beside the railway line and hedgerows, seeing the ruins of a small intermediate fort and some milehouses on the way.


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.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inca Trail day 4

This was the day we would arrive at Macchu Picchu so we awoke with a keen sense of anticipation.   To celebrate the last day on the trail, somehow the chef had whipped up an enormous cake which was served after breakfast.  After a discussion with Marco about the likely weather over the next two days we agreed that it would be best to tour Macchu Picchu as soon as we arrived in mid afternoon rather than wait until tomorrow. Marco assured us that this would mean less crowds and better weather (he was right). We could see the backside of the mountain above Macchu Picchu in front of us as we started out.  Unlike the last two days, today was mainly downhill.  We would have to descend about 1,000 meters and judging by the first part of the morning walk, most of this would be on steep and slippery rocky steps. After alternating descents and traversing along steep hillsides through cloud forest and bamboo groves we reached the ruins of Intipata. Intipata was a very...
2 comments
Read more

Vatnajökull National Park

Vatnajökull National Park is a must visit destination for any tourist to Iceland.  It's also one of the most inaccessable.  The main reason for this inaccessability is that much of the National Park is taken up by the enormous Vatnajökull glacier.  So you can't just drive in and walk around.  To see the interior of the park (the glacier) you need to make special arrangements - like taking a tour in a Superjeep. We booked a Superjeep tour for our first day at the park which was cancelled due to the inclement weather... However the next day we were definitely ready to see as much as we could and fortunately the tour was back on. Our tour guide was Hungarian but very well informed and we learned a lot about Icelandic culture as well as glaciers and volcanoes. The Jeep we were in had been made by the driver (and some friends) and consisted of part of a Chrysler with another van's back end bolted on and modified engine and gears.  It had 54 inch wheels w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dining in Denpasar

 A key part of any holiday experience is food.  During the first week of our stay in Bali we had two nice and very contrasting dining experiences. Merah Putih is billed as the best Indonesian restaurant in Denpasar. It was just a few blocks from our Seminyak villa so we prebooked well ahead of time for a visit. The restaurant venue is very impressive - from the inside it looks a bit like a giant greenhouse, including the plants. The food was spectacular.  While every dish was good, the Bak Pao Sapi (Beef steamed buns) and Semur Sapi (slow roasted beef cheek) were incredible.   Then for Christmas Eve lunch we had booked at Starfish Bloo at W Bali, one of the swankiest Sunday Brunch venues on the island.  Sunday brunch buffets are a signature Bali experience with many of the big international hotels putting on all you can eat extravaganzas once a week. Needless to say the meal was jaw dropping.  We had a great table close to the beach where we enjoyed un...
Post a Comment
Read more