Hadrian’s Wall runs 117km/73miles all the way across the narrow neck of England from the Irish Sea to the North Sea and was an immense engineering statement representing the furthest northern boundary of the Roman Empire. Today, a walk along the still well preserved sections of the wall, seeing the old forts and milecastles, staying in Bed & Breakfasts and eating in local pubs along the way is the best way to get a feel for the wall and to see the beautiful Northumbrian countryside. It also brings about that wonderful moment of trying to briefly imagine what it must have been like all those years ago as a cold, guarding, far from home Roman soldier to be looking out northwards from the wall into the dark forests and far off hills of a distant, unknown and unconquered barbarian land. Great experience
Top tip – don’t walk the whole length of the wall, which takes 6/7 days. The sections west of Lanercost / Walton are flat and with relatively little Roman pieces to see, and west of Chollerford / Heddon-on-the-Wall are basically walking along a road / west end Newcastle. The sections between are the highlights with the best preserved Roman sites and the beautiful Northumberland countryside, and you need only 2 or 3 days to walk them. Our route was to start in Lanercost, walk the first day to Once Brewed and then walk the second day to Collerford. You could extend this by a day by starting in Walton and walking to Heddon-on-the-Wall. Either options let you see the highlights
Interesting fact – whilst many people imagine the wall as being a defensive structure to keep the dangerous, marauding, barbaric Scots out of the Roman Empire (and indeed it was built to repel defensively if needed), it was actually more of an administrative boundary. When Hadrian started to build the wall in 122AD, the age of the Roman expansion had largely ended and instead the empire was consolidating its vast land area that spread from the Atlantic to Syria, and from the Rhine and Danube rivers to the Sahara. North of the wall were still farms and Roman towns built by people who felt safe enough to do so just by proximity to the northern point of this vast empire. The Romans, who at the time were the European superpower with simply no rivals, had little interest in the land to the north, which had little minerals compared to the tin in Wales and Cornwall, and were certainly not fearful of the Scottish tribes. The Wall was really to slow down any raiding parties stealing from farms in what is now Northern England and as a symbol from Hadrian that the growth should stop (sorry, proud Scottish folk)