Hadrian’s Wall: Lonely Roman Outpost

Hadrian’s Wall, a World Heritage Site, is one of the most important Roman monuments in the world. This vast military defence work was built from about AD120, and stretched from Wallsend to Bowness, a distance of 73 miles, the entire width of Britain. Hadrian’s Wall was the northern border of the Roman Empire in Britain for hundreds of years, and was created to prevent invasions from the north by the Pictish tribes of Scotland; in fact, it clearly defined the border between the Selgovae tribe in the north from the Brigantes in the south, and discouraged the tribes from forming a single united force.

The engraving in the Victorian Picture Library vividly depicts how the wall strides up and down the bare hills and escarpments of this wild, lonely part of Britain. To the soldiers of the Roman Empire who garrisoned the Wall, this must have seemed like the end of the world - and this exposed site is cold and windy in winter. One of the fascinating letters excavated at Vindolanda, a Roman fort just south of the Wall, is from a mother worried about the welfare of her soldier son. She must have been told how cold it was, for she wrote: ‘I have sent you some pairs of socks … and two pairs of underpants’.

How was the Wall built? Surveyors laid out a line of stones along the route, then the milecastles (small forts) were built a Roman mile apart with two turrets between each one. Then the Wall itself was built (of turf and local stone), up to 3m thick and 6m high, with a walkway along the top. The original plan was to complete the Wall in about five years, but in fact it seems that work was still going on when the Emperor Hadrian died in AD138. The long, hard work of building the Wall was done by soldiers of the IInd, VIth and XXth legions. Each section of the wall had a plaque inscribed with the details of the unit that built it and the centurion in charge.

However, it was not these soldiers who garrisoned the Wall; auxiliary troops were brought in from all over the Empire, and there is evidence that the soldiers came from Spain, Syria, France, Germany, Hungary and Africa. South of the Wall a road was built to connect all the installations, and large forts were built to garrison the troops - these attracted civilian settlements providing shops and leisure activities.

Today, much of the Wall, along with its milecastles and forts, can be seen and visited, and a footpath follows the route of the Wall.

Hadrian's Wall
Victorian engraving showing Hadrian's Wall in rolling rural landscape.