Wright Wanderings...: Day 4: Hadrian's Wall, A Trip Highlight For All!

Hadrian's Wall is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site. It's the wall Roman Emperor Hadrian built to keep the Scots out of England and is essentially what constituted the border between these two lands. The wall extends across from the River Tyne to the Cumbrian Coast. The section of wall we visited is called Housteads, known as Vercovicium, to the Romans. This fort is the best preserved of all 16 forts on the Roman frontier of Hadrian's Wall. It clings to a dramatic landscape that was once on the edge of the Roman Empire.

This was our last day in Scotland; from Hadrian's, we began to make our trek into England...

Borrowing heavily from a variety of placards around the fort, I can tell you that this fort was begun around AD 124 and occupied for about 280 years by up to 800 auxiliary soldiers. For much of this time there was also a vicus, a civilian settlement clustered on the hillside outside the fort, which helped to meet the everyday needs of the soldiers. It contained houses, shops, inns and temples, and an extensive system of fields for growing produce and pasturing animals - considering the number of soldiers stationed here, there was never a shortage of mouths to feed! The remains of this once-thriving Roman landscape can still be traced throughout the grounds today.....and we were excited to trace over as much of it as we possible could! There were several who vowed to return someday in order to hike the entire extensive wall for as many miles as they could follow!

Students were giddy with the wide open space and the freedom this site afforded them - the opportunity to run wild with wind whipping through their hair and feet cushioned in the cool green grass was a welcomed change from the busy, tourist-filled cities.