Named after the emperor who ordered its construction, Hadrian's Wall was one of Rome's greatest engineering projects. This enormous 73-mile-long wall was built between AD 122 and 128 to separate the Romans from Scottish Picts. Today, the remains are still a breathtaking tribute to Roman ambition and tenacity. When completed, the mammoth structure ran across the island's narrow neck, from the Solway Firth in the west almost to the mouth of the Tyne in the east. After each Roman mile (0.95 miles) there was a gateway guarded by a small fort (milecastle) and between each milecastle were two observation turrets. Milecastles are numbered right across the country, starting with Milecastle 0 at Wallsend – where you can visit the wall's last stronghold, Segedunum – and ending with Milecastle 80 at Bowness-on-Solway.
A series of forts were developed to the south (possibly before the wall), and 16 lie astride it.
Housesteads Fort
The most dramatic site of Hadrian's Wall – and the best-preserved Roman fort in the whole country – is at Housesteads, 4 miles north of Bardon Mill on the B6318, and 6.5 miles northeast of Haltwhistle. From here, high on a ridge and covering 2 hectares, you can survey the moors of Northumberland National Park, and the snaking wall, with a sense of awe at the landscape and the aura of the Roman lookouts.
Up to 800 troops were based at Housesteads at any one time. Its remains include an impressive hospital, granaries with a carefully worked out ventilation system and barrack blocks. Most memorable are the spectacularly situated communal flushable latrines. Information boards show what the individual buildings would have looked like in their heyday. There's a scale model of the entire fort in the small museum at the ticket office.
Vindolanda
At 1.5 miles north of Bardon Mill between the A69 and B6318, and 5.8 miles northeast of Haltwhistle, lies the extensive site of Vindolanda. It offers a fascinating insight to the daily life of a Roman garrison town. The time-capsule museum is just one part of this large, extensively excavated site, which includes impressive parts of the fort and town and reconstructed turrets and temple. Highlights include leather sandals, signature Roman helmet decorations and numerous writing tablets recently returned from the British Library.
Corstopitum
The remains of this Roman garrison town lie about half a mile west of Market Place on Dere Street, once the main road from York to Scotland. It's the oldest fortified site in the area, built some 40 years before Hadrian’s Wall. However, most of what you can see here dates from around AD 200, by which time the fort had become a civilian settlement and was the main base along the wall. The visible remains give a sense of the domestic activity that lay at the heart of this place. The Corbridge Museum displays Roman sculpture and carvings, including the amazing 3rd-century Corbridge Lion.
Chesters Fort and Museum
The remains of Chester Fort are brilliantly preserved, being set among beautiful woods and meadows near the village of Chollerford. The fort was constructed to accommodate up to 500 troops from Asturias in northern Spain. The remains include part of a bridge (best appreciated from the eastern bank), four gatehouses, a bathhouse and an underfloor heating system. The museum has a large Roman sculpture collection and there's a simple tearoom on site. You can get there by Hadrian's Wall bus AD122.
Roman Army Museum
The museum has been revamped with three new galleries which examine the Roman Army and the Empire’s expansion and eventual collapse. It’s located on the site of the Carvoran Roman Fort a mile northeast of Greenhead, near Walltown Crags. It features a 3D film illustrating what the wall was like nearly 2000 years ago, with colourful background detail to Hadrian's Wall life and how the soldiers spent their spare time in this lonely outpost of the Empire.
Hexham Abbey
Dominating tiny Market Place, Hexham Abbey is a wonderful example of Early English architecture. It cleverly escaped the Dissolution of 1537 by rebranding as Hexham's parish church, a role it still has today. The highlight is the 7th-century Saxon crypt, the only surviving element of St Wilfrid's Church, built with inscribed stones from Corstopitum in 674.
Birdoswald Roman Fort
On a minor road off the B6318, about 3 miles west of Greenhead, lie the remains of this once-formidable fort on an escarpment overlooking the beautiful Irthing Gorge. The longest intact stretch of wall extends from here to Harrow's Scar Milecastle.
Old Gaol
Completed in 1333 as England's first purpose-built prison, today this strapping stone structure's four floors tell the story of the Border Reivers – a group of clans who fought, kidnapped, blackmailed and killed each other in an effort to exercise control over a lawless tract of land along the Anglo-Scottish border throughout the 16th century.
Title Image Credit: Lee Dyer (Image Cropped)