Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian’s Wall is a remarkable relic of the Roman Empire, having been in place for nearly 1900 years. The size of the wall, which stretches for 73 miles across northern England, is amazing in itself, as are the remains of various forts and other structures along its length.

Why build a wall?

The forces of the Roman Empire never conquered the whole of the island of Britain. Although the Roman general Agricola had managed to subdue the tribes of southern Scotland in AD 80 to 82, and he defeated a Caledonian army at Mons Graupius (near modern Aberdeen) in AD 83, it proved very difficult to consolidate any gains of territory that were made, and the tribes that occupied these wild lands were fiercely independent.

It was therefore decided by Emperor Hadrian (reign AD 117-138) to set a limit to the Roman Empire by building a wall across northern England, beyond which the Romans would seek no further conquests. Hadrian spent much of his reign away from Rome, particularly in the frontier provinces, and it was during a visit to Britain in AD 122 that he ordered the wall to be built and surveyed the course that it would take. It took about six years to complete, although some work was being done as late as AD 136.

The wall had a threefold purpose. One was to protect the province of Britannia from incursions by the tribes to the north. Another was to make it clear to Romans in general that the Empire was now fixed in extent and no further expansion was contemplated (Hadrian also built walls in other places, such as Germany, with the same end in view). A third function of the wall was to regulate (and thereby tax) trade between the native peoples north and south of the wall. Although the wall was a barrier it was a leaky one in that there were plenty of places where passage through it was possible.

The site of the wall

Hadrian’s Wall stretches for 73 miles (80 Roman miles) from the River Tyne in the east to the Solway Firth in the west. It comes close to the modern border between England and Scotland in the west, but the English county of Northumberland lies mainly to the north of the wall, with the Scottish border being some 60 miles north of the eastern end of the wall.

For part of its length the wall runs along the top of the Great Whin Sill, an ancient outcrop of volcanic rock that forms a north-facing scarp slope that presents a natural obstacle and also provides some of the most stunning scenery along the extent of the wall. It is fortunate for visitors that this is also where the wall is best preserved, there having been fewer people around in the intervening centuries to take the stones for their own walls and buildings.

How the wall was built

Construction of the wall was done by three Roman legions, the second, sixth and twentieth, and each had its own way of building the fortifications that are dotted along the wall. It was started at the eastern end and proceeded westwards.

Stone blocks were used for the first 42 miles (stone facing on a rubble interior), but the western 31 miles were originally built as a turf wall although stone reinforcements were added later. The wall was 15 feet high and up to 10 feet wide with a 6-foot parapet on top.

The original scheme was for a continuous wall, fronted by a ditch, with small forts built at intervals of a Roman mile. These would have gates to the north and the south, with barracks for up to 30 men. There would be small turrets at intervals of a third of a mile between each “milecastle”, these turrets being watch-towers from which soldiers would look for any activity on either side of the wall. The plan also included the establishment of a chain of larger forts along Stanegate, the road that ran south of the wall and parallel to it at a distance of about two miles. This road predated the wall by about 50 years, and there were already small forts at regular intervals along it.

However, in AD 124 the original plan was changed in that the chain of large forts was abandoned in favour of incorporating the forts into the wall itself. This meant demolishing some of the milecastles and turrets that had already been built. Twelve full-sized forts were built originally, with five more added later. When fully in operation the wall was guarded by about 9,000 men stationed along it.

The plan was also changed to include the digging of a broad and deep ditch, the “Vallum”, on the south side of the wall. This was flat-bottomed, about 21 feet wide and eight feet deep, and with a turf bank that was set back from each edge. The Vallum could only be crossed by causeways that led to the forts. The purpose of the Vallum appears to have been to control access from the south, which suggests that the presence of the wall was resented by people living in this area whose freedom to contact and trade with people to the north had been curtailed by the building of the wall.

What can you see?

Visitors to the wall today can only see the remains of what was clearly a formidable structure in its heyday. It has been estimated that some 24 million blocks of stone were used, and that the mass of the wall was greater than that of all the pyramids of Giza put together. All the work was done by hand using only primitive tools, by today’s standards, and this included the cutting of the regular-shaped stones and the digging of the Vallum, often through solid rock.

Visitors must also wonder at examples of the military mind at work, such as where milecastles were placed inappropriately because that was where they had to go, at mile intervals. There could be no other reason for a gateway that led straight to a sheer precipice!

The forts at Housesteads and Chesters are well worth a visit. That at Housesteads includes remains of granaries and barracks and a latrine block that used a form of water flushing to carry waste material out of the building. There is evidence of an extensive civilian settlement outside the walls of the fort, and ruts worn by Roman carts in the stone road can still be seen nearly 2,000 years after they were made.

A visit to the wall must also allow time to see the remains of Vindolanda (Chesterholm) which is the largest of the Stanegate forts. The original timber-built fort would have been used by the builders of Hadrian’s Wall, but it was abandoned as part of the changes made in AD 124 and only rebuilt some time later as an impressive fort and small town. The finds made here have been remarkable and include evidence of family life. Particularly fascinating have been finds of wooden tablets that were used for inscribing messages that reveal the personal lives of the people who lived here.

What happened to the wall?

Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius, did not accept Hadrian’s view that the Empire must end at the wall and he tried to advance the line further north, building a new wall between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. During the 20-year period when the Antonine Wall was fortified and manned, Hadrian’s Wall was of less importance and was largely abandoned.

However, it proved impossible to defend the far less substantial Antonine Wall (built of turf on a stone base) and Emperor Marcus Aurelius abandoned it in AD 164, relying instead on the original Hadrian’s Wall as his northern boundary. Any ambitions to conquer lands north of the wall were relinquished for ever after the death (in Britain) of Septimius Severus in 211, but Hadrian’s Wall held firm until 367 when the Picts were eventually able to breach it, at the same time that Britannia was under threat from Saxons and Franks further south. Despite this breach, the wall was occupied until the final abandonment of Britannia by the Romans in 410.

As mentioned above, the fabric of much of the wall has disappeared over the centuries, with some of the stones being taken in the 18^th century for the building of roads to enable the defence of England against the Scots in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. More stones would undoubtedly have been lost but for the efforts of Newcastle town clerk John Clayton in the 19^th century. Clayton bought some of the land on which the wall stood and encouraged people to visit it and support its preservation, as well as restoring some portions of it.

Hadrian’s Wall is now preserved by the National Trust and is recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

© John Welford

Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland

A visit to Dunstanburgh Castle, in Northumberland, is not something to fill in the odd half-hour, partly because no road comes within a mile and a half of it. The only way to get there is to walk! So give yourself plenty of time, preferably on a day with good weather, and appreciate the dramatic coastal scenery as well as the looming castle walls as you approach, whether from the north or the south.

Dunstanburgh Castle stands on a headland overlooking the North Sea, which crashes against the rocks below when the tide is high and the wind strong from the east. The cries of gulls and other seabirds add to the drama of what will be a memorable visit to this ancient ruin.

History of the castle

The original builder and owner was Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was one of the barons who opposed King Edward II, the weak and despotic son of Edward I who paid more attention to his unworthy favourites than to those with real knowledge of how to rule in the 14^th century.

Lancaster, who was a cousin of the king, decided to build a castle partly to demonstrate his power in the north, partly to provide a refuge should he need to defend himself against the king whom he had offended, and partly for defence against the Scots, who were constantly threatening to invade from the north.

The building of Dunstanburgh Castle began in 1313, and was largely finished, as originally conceived, when Lancaster was eventually captured and executed in 1322 after an abortive rebellion against Edward. He had been trying to reach Dunstanburgh when he was intercepted. The huge size of the castle, the curtain walls of which enclose an area of eleven acres, is testament to its purpose as somewhere to which large numbers of people, complete with livestock, could retreat if danger threatened.

After Lancaster’s death, the castle eventually became owned by John of Gaunt, a grandson of Edward II who acquired the title of Duke of Lancaster through his first wife. Gaunt was concerned that the defences at Dunstanburgh were insufficient, and therefore made many alterations in the 1370s and 1380s. These were called into use during the Wars of the Roses in the 1460s, when the castle fell to the Yorkists due to the garrison being starved out, but after that there was little military need for Dunstanburgh to be maintained, and much of the fabric fell into disrepair over the following centuries.

What you can see

The first thing seen by the visitor who approaches from the south is the massive gatehouse that dates from the original building by Thomas of Lancaster. One of Thomas’s aims was to show that his power and wealth were equal to that of the king, and this gatehouse was every bit as impressive as that of Edward I’s castles in Wales, such as Harlech. Either side of the gateway itself is a huge D-shaped building that would originally have been four storeys high, with the upper floors connecting across the castle entrance. Above these, free-standing towers would have risen for another two storeys, surmounted by turrets. The remaining stonework stands jagged against the skyline to a considerable height.

Today’s visitors can see the rooms at ground and first-floor level, and go up the spiral stairs as far as where the second floor would have been. These rooms would have had dual purposes as both military and domestic chambers, as this is the only really substantial building in the original design.

John of Gaunt clearly took the view that this dual use was unsatisfactory, and built a new gatehouse to the west of Thomas’s gatehouse, as well as building internal walls that created an inner ward, thus giving Dunstanburgh something of the look of a standard medieval castle. However, the workmanship and materials of this later work were clearly inferior to the original building, because little remains of it today. Indeed, the new gatehouse was reported to be on the point of collapse as early as 1431.

There are several other towers at various positions around the long curtain wall, built both for defence and as accommodation for soldiers. At the north-west corner is the square Lilburn Tower, the turrets of which reach 60 feet in height.

On the seaward side, the defence of the castle relied more on natural features than man-made walls. There were originally walls that have long disappeared on the north side, these probably being for the purpose of protecting livestock rather than for defence, as the 100-foot cliff would have made attack impossible.

In the south-east corner, the Egyncleugh Tower commands a ravine which provided sea access to the castle for small boats, if the weather was calm. Although there is evidence of a watergate, the main function seems to have been similar to that of the Lilburn Tower, namely to provide accommodation for the garrison.

The wall leading back to the gatehouse was clearly where any attack could be expected, because you can see the remains of a small turret, plus a more substantial tower, that would have been used to guard this stretch.

The tower is known as the Constable’s Tower, as this was the home of the castle’s chief officer, responsible for the defence of the castle and also for managing the lands beyond, the rents of which would have paid for its upkeep in return for the defence it offered to everyone in the surrounding area.

As well as the tower, which juts to the outside of the curtain wall, you can see the outlines of walls on the inside, which would have belonged to buildings that were part of the constable’s suite of rooms.

If you have walked round the whole circuit of walls you will have had a decent walk, given the huge area that they encircle. Recent investigations have uncovered evidence of other buildings, but we can assume that much of the area would have been left empty for livestock to graze, or for people to erect temporary buildings or tents. You can imagine how differently the castle would have appeared at a time of danger, with hundreds of people and animals there, as opposed to when the locals felt safe to manage their farms without being threatened by the Scots.

You can also imagine how the castle would have looked with the curtain wall as its full height, soldiers patrolling the walkway across the top and lookouts posted on top of every turret. As with any visit to a ruined castle, the imagination gets as much exercise as the body!

Dunstanburgh Castle is under the care of English Heritage, and may be visited free of charge by English Heritage members. The castle is open every day of the week from April to October, but is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between November and March. From April to September the opening hours are 10am to 5pm, but only to 4pm from October to March.

As mentioned above, the castle is remote and inaccessible by road. It is probably not therefore the best place to take young children, unless you are prepared to carry them for three miles or wheel a pushchair along a rough track! However, if you have the time and the energy, Dunstanburgh is well worth a visit.

© John Welford