Climbing up the steep hill at Walwick, the B6318 leads to suddenly higher ground and a very different landscape. After reaching its most elevated point at Limestone Corner, the Wall turns slightly to cross a long stretch of moorland. Perhaps the bleakest traverse in all its 135 kilometres, the path runs past the fort at Carrawburgh, the Mithraeum and Coventina’s Well. In poor conditions it must be a long, head-down slog on foot.
The road swings abruptly away from the Wall ditch and crosses the Vallum at Archer’s Wood. It is difficult to escape the sense that the modern road has taken a wrong turning and the grassed-over, ancient earthwork points the right way. The Wall at last makes its way up to Sewingshields Crag and begins its most dramatic run along the Whin Sill.
The fall of the ground cants the site of Housesteads Fort to the south and its impressive extent can easily be seen from the road below. Many travellers are tempted to stop and, even though the car park is some distance away – and followed by an uphill walk – Housesteads is the most visited fort on the Wall. From the gateway down at the Knag Burn, to the east, the fort looks commanding, even menacing. If anyone is seized with an urge to walk along a section of the Wall, Housesteads is a good place to begin. For almost 15 kilometres to the west, the Military Road is close and the Hadrian’s Wall bus, the aptly named 122, can be picked up at frequent intervals to take walkers back to where they left their cars.
The glorious vistas of Hotbank Crags, Crag Lough, Sycamore Gap and Steel Rigg are all nearby and the thirsty may wish to break off at the car park near where the Wall dives down and up and round a corner. Only half a mile to the south, downhill, stands the Twice Brewed Inn, with one of the best selections of good beer anywhere. The food is wholesome and plentiful, the service excellent and the upholstery just comfortable enough to extend lunch on all but the sunniest days. The 122 stops outside.
The heartbeat of the Wall, the place where it comes most vividly to life, is near at hand. At Vindolanda, where Britain’s greatest archaeological treasures, the lists and letters, were found, there is so much to see and understand that at least a day is needed – even for the most casual visitor. At the best of the Wall’s other sites, history seems to have happened, all is well preserved but presented in a freeze-frame. Nothing more needs to be said. At Vindolanda it is different. History keeps happening as the excavation programme continues. Each summer season Andrew Birley and his team open up new areas, and visitors are invited to watch and ask questions. Frequently, objects are found, cleaned and discussed minutes after they come out of the ground. There is no anxious, academic guardedness, only a willingness to share in new knowledge.
The museum is excellent, the artefacts fresh and well displayed, and a well-made film runs on a loop to explain their context. All that is missing is a special exhibition telling the story of the lists and letters – and showing the best of them. Because of the need for and cost of preservation, the great treasures of Vindolanda are currently kept at the British Museum in London. They belong where they were written, in the north, and perhaps one day money will be found to bring them home.
At Cawfield milecastle quarrying has taken a great bite out of the Wall. It seems as though the milecastle just escaped, tottering on the edge of extinction. The northern gateway, leading over a precipice, is a wonderful, timeless example of military daftness, and the sloping site must have been a nightmare for its builders. To the south stretches one of the very best runs of the Vallum.
More quarrying at Walltown has removed another section, but up on the crags there is a turret which predated the arrival of Hadrian. Looking out over Thirlwall Common, the dark fringes of the great Kielder Forest can be made out, and away to the west the glint of the Solway. At the nearby Roman Army Museum at Carvoran, the centrepiece of an excellent display is an animated film, Eagle’s Eye, and it offers a superb reconstruction of what the Wall and its garrison looked like.
The landscape shelves steeply down at Greenhead and undulates towards the valley of the River Irthing. At Gilsland, Poltross milecastle lies at the end of a winding path, half hidden by woods and immediately adjacent to the railway line connecting Carlisle and Newcastle. The walls still stand high but any sense of the past is instantly wiped when a train whooshes past, just across the fence.
The sector of the Wall between Poltross and Birdoswald Fort is less visited than it should be. In its way, with rollercoaster sweeps down to the site of the bridge over the Irthing at Willowford and, up the other side, it is just as spectacular as the Whin Sill. The section of the Wall leading from the milecastle above the river up to the fort is one of the longest and most substantial. Birdoswald is the last great site on the line. Excavated and exposed in only one corner, it nevertheless has high walls and massive gateways. Racing back across the centuries, a sense of what it was like comes quickly to mind at Birdoswald.
To the west, over towards Carlisle, the Wall quickly dwindles and even the Vallum is hard to see as it crosses fertile and frequently ploughed farmland on its way to the Eden Valley. Beyond it, walkers keep to the road leading from Carlisle to the Solway coast, and then follow the shoreline until the end of the path and the Land-Wall at Bowness-on-Solway. As they at last reach the village, those nearing journey’s end are directed to a path offering good views across the firth to Annan and the Galloway hills. About halfway along they meet a wooden structure which marks the end of their marathon. More like a bus shelter than anything else, it is a little disappointing. In fact the Emperor Hadrian would have been appalled. Surely a triumphal arch would have been more fitting – for the reality is that, after two thousand years, the Wall remains triumphant.
Appendix 1
Significant Roman Emperors During the Time of Britannia
Claudius
AD 4
to
AD 54
Nero
54
to
68
Vespasian
69
to
79
Titus
79
to
81
Domitian
81
to
96
Nerva
96
to
98
Trajan
98
to
117
Hadrian
117
to
138
Antoninus Pius
138
to
161
Marcus Aurelius
161
to
180
Commodus
180
to
192
Septimius Severus
193
to
211
Caracalla
211
to
217
Elagabalus
218
to
222
Severus Alexander
222
to
235
Maximinus
235
to
238
Gordian III
238
to
244
Philip the Arab
244
to
249
Diocletian
284
to
305
Carausius
286
to
293
(usurper emperor in Britain only)
Allectus
293
to
296
(succeeds Carausius only in Britain)
Constantine
307
to
337
Valentinian
364
to
375
Theodosius
379
to
395
Magnus Maximus
383
to
388
<
br /> (usurper in Britain and the West)
Honorius
393
to
408
Constantine III
407
to
411
(usurper in Britain only in the West)
Appendix 2
Significant Governors of Britannia
Aulus Plautius
43
to
47
Ostorius Scapula
47
to
52
Didius Gallus
52
to
57
Q. Verianus
57
to
58
Suetonius Paullinus
58
to
61
Petronius Turpilianus
61
to
63
Trebellius Maximus
63
to
69
Vettius Bolanus
69
to
71
Petilius Cerialis
71
to
73
Julius Frontinus
73
to
77
Julius Agricola
77
to
84
Unknown
to
Sallustius Lucullus
to
84
Metilius Nepos
to
98
Avidius Quietus
98
to
103
Neratius Marcellus
103
to
108
Appius Bradua
to
108
Pompeius Falco
to
122
Platorius Nepos
122
to
127
Trebius Germanus
127
to
128
Julius Severus
128
to
132
Mummius Sisenna
to
135
Lollius Urbicus
139
to
142
Papirius Aelianus
to
146
Julius Verus
to
158
Statius Priscus
161
to
162
Calpurnius
to
163
Antistius Adventus
to
169
Ulpius Marcellus
to
178
Ulpius Marcellus again
to
184
Helvius Pertinax
185
to
187
Clodius Albinus
192
to
197
Virius Lupus
to
197
Valerius Pudens
to
205
Alfenus Senecio
205
to
207
After the division of Britannia into two provinces (and later four, and then five), its governors become less significant figures.
Bibliography
The Oxford World’s Classics and the Penguin Classics series are indispensable, and both a joy and an adornment. I have used many of the translations over the years but the following were crucial in the research for this book.
Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Robin Waterfield, Oxford University Press, 1998
Pliny the Younger, Complete Letters, trans. P.G. Walsh, Oxford University Press, 2006
Plutarch, Roman Lives, trans. Robin Waterfield, Oxford Paperbacks, 1998
Lives of the Later Caesars, trans. A.R. Birley, Penguin Classics, 1976
Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, trans. Catherine Edwards, Oxford Paperbacks, 2000
Tacitus, Agricola, and Germany, trans. A.R. Birley, Oxford Paperbacks, 1999
Tacitus, Annals of Imperial Rome, trans. Michael Grant, Penguin Classics, 1956
Secondary sources for a study of Hadrian’s Wall are excellent; here are those which were most useful to me:
Bedoyere, de la, G., Hadrian’s Wall, NPI Media Group, 1998
Birley, A.R., Garrison Life at Vindolanda, History Press, 2002
Birley, A.R., Hadrian, the Restless Emperor, Routledge, 1997
Bowman, A.K., Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier, British Museum Press, 1976
Breeze, D.J. and Dobson, B., Hadrian’s Wall, Penguin, 1976
Breeze, D.J., The Antonine Wall, John Donald, 2006
Burton, A., Hadrian’s Wall Path, Aurum Press, 2003
Crow, J., Housesteads, History Press, 1995
Davies, J., A History of Wales, Penguin, 1990
Davies, N., Europe: A History, Pimlico, 1996
Fraser, A.F., The Native Horses of Scotland, John Donald, 1987
Frere, S.S., Britannia, Pimlico, 1967
Goldsworthy, A., Caesar, Phoenix, 2000
Hill, P., The Construction of Hadrian’s Wall, History Press, 2000
Johnson, S., Hadrian’s Wall, Batsford, 1989
Moffat, A., The Borders: A History from Earliest Times, Birlinn, 2002
Morris, J., The Age of Arthur, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973
Salway, P., The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain, Oxford University Press, 1993
Scarre, C, The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome, Penguin, 1995
Thomas, A.C., Celtic Britain, Thames & Hudson, 1986
Towill, S., Carlisle, Phillimore, 1991
Watson, W.J., The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, Birlinn, 1993
Wilmott, A., Birdoswald Roman Fort, Heritage Services, 1995
Index
Note: Material enclosed in a box is indicated by “box” after the page number. Passim indicates scattered non-continuous references over a page range. Roman names are generally indexed under the second element (no-men) followed by the third element. The elements are explained in the boxed text on page 32 and the list of Governors on page 253 follows this pattern. Emperors and well-known classical authors are indexed under the name by which they are commonly known. Book titles beginning with “The” and places beginning with “St” are indexed as spelt but Christian saints are found under their names.
1745 Rebellion ref 1
Admimus ref 1
Adomnan, Saint ref 1
Adrianople ref 1
Aelius Brocchus ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Aelius Mansuetus ref 1
Aeschylus ref 1
Aetern ref 1
Agricola (Gnaeus Julius Agricola) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
Agricola (Tacitus) ref 1, ref 2
Ala Augusta ref 1, ref 2
Ala Petriana ref 1
Alans ref 1
Albion ref 1
Alfenus Senecio ref 1, ref 2
Allan Water ref 1
Allectus ref 1
altar dedications ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
altars, buried cache of ref 1
Ambleside ref 1
amphitheatres ref 1 box
Anavionenses ref 1, ref 2
Andraste ref 1
Anglesey ref 1 box, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
animal feed ref 1
Annaeus Florus ref 1, ref 2
Annals of Imperial Rome ref 1, ref 2
Annan valley ref 1
Annius Verus see Marcus Aurelius
Antenociticus ref 1
Antinous ref 1, ref 2 box, ref 3
Antonine Wall ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Antoninus Pius ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Apicius ref 1 box
Apollo Maponus ref 1
Apollodorus ref 1 box, ref 2, ref 3
App
ianus ref 1
Aquileia ref 1
Arbeia ref 1
Archibald, Daphne ref 1 box
Ardoch ref 1, ref 2
areani ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Armenia ref 1
armour ref 1
Armstrong family ref 1
Army Command North ref 1, ref 2
Arthur ref 1 box
Atecotti ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Atrebates ref 1
Auden, W.H. ref 1 box
Augustus ref 1 box, ref 2, ref 3 box, ref 4 box, ref 5 box
Aulus Plautius ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5 box
Aurelian ref 1, ref 2 box
Avidius Cassius ref 1
Avidius Heliodorus ref 1
Avidius Nigrinus ref 1
Ayrshire ref 1
Balmuildy ref 1, ref 2
Bamburgh ref 1
Bar Hill ref 1
Barbarian Conspiracy ref 1
barbarians ref 1 box, ref 2, ref 3
Barcombe Hill ref 1
Basque ref 1 box
Batavians ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
bath houses ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
beards ref 1, ref 2
Bearsden Fort ref 1, ref 2, ref 3 box, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 box
Bede ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
beer ref 1, ref 2
Belatucadros ref 1
Belgae ref 1
Beltane ref 1
Benwell Fort ref 1
Beowulf ref 1
Bernicia ref 1
berries ref 1
Bervie Bay ref 1
Bewcastle ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Bigbury ref 1
Birdoswald Fort ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
biremes ref 1
Birley, Andrew ref 1
Birley, Anthony ref 1, ref 2
The Wall Page 31