Carlisle, Hadrian's Wall

The Roman Emperor, Hadrian, had his Army build a wall across England in about 100 AD or so. Hadrian's Wall, built of stone, is 80 miles long, about 20 feet high, and 10 feet wide, and generally runs from the area of Carlisle to near Newcastle.

They manned the wall for over 200 years (that’s nearly as long as the US has existed!). At few places near Hadrian’s Wall, there are foundations of the buildings where the Army lived, including the Commandant’s home or office, baths, latrines, and a headquarters building. We then drove west along the wall, and stopped and looked at more parts of it. By now it was raining and very windy. We dressed the best we could, and suffered as little as possible.

At one place a man in charge of the area gave us a plastic copy of an old Roman coin. He said he had found the original on the wall many years ago. We see places where the people in the area used “dressed” stones from Hadrian’s Wall to build other walls and buildings. A large castle nearby was also built using stones from the wall.

In years past they had neither the tourist market to justify, nor the preservationists to insist on continued maintenance. For centuries, throughout Europe Roman Amphitheaters (including the Colosseum in Rome), abbeys and Cathedrals were often used as rock quarries. In many places, the remaining ruins are almost as interesting as the original building must have been.