Remembering Romano-British Cumbria and Northumbria

Location of Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall in Scotland and Northern England. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A year ago today we were bundled up and occasionally getting pelted with sleet as we visited our first British Castle in Carlisle, Cumbria. We were introduced to the story of St. George and the dragon when our then 8 year old was able to participate in a reenactment of the story. This was also the first place we saw obvious indications of Roman occupation of this area. Stones from earlier Roman structures, including those inscribed with Latin, were used in the construction of Carlisle Castle.

However, it was on the following day that we really got a taste of the Romano-British era as we followed Hadrian's Wall on what was once a Roman road. We stopped at several major forts like Housesteads as well as smaller roadside mileforts along the route.

These couple of days were some of the most amazing and memorable. Of all the places we visited, this northernmost area of England is right up there with London in priority for a return visit. I would love to explore this area on foot one day.

Related articles

• Exploring Carlisle Castle (shannafern.com)
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Corbridge: A Roman Town

The last stop on our tour of Hadrian's Wall was the remains of Corbridge: A Roman Town. Corbridge is significant for several reasons - the most obvious being the easily discernible stratification of several eras of Roman construction.

During the Roman occupation of the the British Isles, forts were constructed to secure areas of conquest. However, there was a secondary benefit. Roman soldiers meant opportunities for trade. So villages would spring up outside the forts. This process was a convenient way to Romanize (or civilize) the occupied area. Corbridge became one of two successful Roman towns in the area around Hadrian's Wall (the other being Carlisle). While Corbridge was growing and inhabited right up to the end of the Roman occupation, there was very little development thereafter in contrast to Carlisle. The Roman remains there are buried beneath a castle and modern town. But Corbridge is surrounding by rural lands lending itself to much more extensive excavations. Therefore, the remains of at least four forts built one on top of the other are apparent followed by a large legionary supply base and a full-blown town. Subsidence of the upper layers shows is the first clue that the town was built on top of previous forts.

The undulation of the ground in the center reveals settling due to the underlying Roman construction

I believe this was a granary - ventilation kept out the wet and pests

Subterranean drainage system

Storage Room

The museum at Corbridge houses a variety of items uncovered in the area including Roman armor and other items found as part of the Corbridge Hoard and the Corbridge Lion which is believed to be a gravestone.

Hunt cup from Corbridge Roman Town

Corbridge Lion

See our tour of Hadrian's Wall on YouTube

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• Housesteads Roman Fort
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Chester's Roman Fort and Museum

Chester's Roman Fort and Museum is significant for the level of preservation of the fort and it's location along the picturesque River Tyne. The site contains the most complete remains of a Roman calvary fort and baths in Britain. The museum at Chester's contains a large collection of Roman artifacts the most significant of which are stone sculptures and inscriptions. Most of the artifacts in the museum were uncovered along the central section of Hadrian's wall by John Clayton (1792-1890), without whom, Chester's, in particular, and Hadrian's Wall, in general, would not be preserved and available to visitors today.

The bathhouse overlooking the Tyne River.

Roman Bathhouse as seen from the Tyne

Jonah and I enjoying the Sauna!

Extensive remains of the Roman Bathhouse at Chester's

Hadrian's Wall crossed the River Tyne here supported by a bridge

The walls in the main room of the museum are lined with sculptures and inscriptions mainly of a religious nature

The Edwardian era display of artifacts is significant in and of itself

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Housesteads Roman Fort

The site of Housesteads Roman Fort and Museum

Due to its remote location, Housesteads, originally called Vercovicium, is the most well-preserved Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall. It sits high on a hill on a break in the Whin Sill ridge near the very center of the wall (Castle Black, anyone?). Like all other Roman forts, this one was based on a standard design used throughout the Roman empire and included a barracks, granary, hospital, the commander's house, and the fort headquarters. This particular fort has the best preserved Roman latrines in all of Britain that still "flush" as designed. While all Roman forts had a decidedly Mediterranean style with central courtyards open to the sky, they made accommodations for the cool climate by designing radiant heating in the floors. Amazing! By the way, the 6-minute video housed in the small museum adjacent to the site is a must. It does a great job of succinctly describing how the fort was used and what it would have looked like when it was occupied by 800 Roman soldiers during it's heyday. 

The bases of columns are visible

The headquarters building in foreground with a view of the Northumbrian countryside in the background

Barracks once lined this avenue

Showing the design of radiant heated Roman floors.

The Roman latrine - wood bench seats would have lined the walls

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The Wall

An exploration of Hadrian's Wall could easily take several days even by car. It stretches more than 70 miles from one coast of Britain to the other - from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Construction took 15 years and began about 122AD under the direction of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. It averaged 18 feet in height and 9 feet thick, included 17 forts as well as smaller fortifications every mile called "milecastles," and signal turrets between each of these. Can you imagine the amount of manpower and stone required?! The official count is 18,000 soldiers and 4 million tons of stone. The cost of building such a thing in the modern age would likely be astronomical.

A definitive reason for the wall's construction is argued by historians, but some believe that Hadrian, having taken a tour of the empire, came to the very rational decision that continued expansion would further weaken the empire and that it would be better to fortify current borders rather than expand. There is archaeological evidence suggesting that some of the Northern Pictish tribes of Alba had experienced some success in attacking Roman forts north of the Solway-Tyne border at a time when Rome was experiencing rebellion and assault in other far flung corners of the empire. So, while at other times and under other rulers attempts were made by Rome to conquer the entire British Isle, Hadrian may have determined that the cost of doing so would outweigh the benefit. And so he built a wall.

Today, what remains of the wall is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Several of the forts have been unearthed by archaeologists and onsite visitor centers and museums help guide visitors in understanding the history of the extensive ruins laid out before them. We took the better part of a day to visit just a few of these: Birdoswald Fort, Housesteads, Chesters, and Corbridge. If you'd rather follow the wall on foot you can do that as well. There is a path or trail that runs the length of the wall and is called Hadrian's Wall Path. This is one trail I would one day like to hike from beginning to end as the scenery of this entire region is spectacular.

One interesting aspect of traveling around Great Britain is all the places we encountered that are reminiscent of supposed fictional places described in some of the popular books that we've read, in particular Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings series and George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. The landscape of this entire area could easily be that of Rohan in Lord of the Rings which makes complete sense considering this entire area is in the Scottish Marches. As we stopped at sites along Hadrian's Wall, there were places where we could most definitely imagine this wall as the inspiration for "The Wall" in the Game of Thrones especially where it sits atop a steep, natural escarpment knows as The Whin Sill.

It is easy to understand why this is Great Britain's most popular tourist attraction and how this area has inspired many an author..

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Hadrian's Wall: Birdoswald Fort

On the morning of our visit, we arrived at Birdoswald Fort before the interpretive area had opened. Nevertheless, we were able to see some stunning scenery of the wall and fort area.