If you ever take a notion to track down Hadrian's Wall, or any small, crumbling part of its epic 73-mile-long 2,000 year-old Roman divide that weaves its ancient way through Northumberland from the North Sea on the East near Newcastle Upon Tyne cross country to Carlisle and the Irish Sea, don't expect it to come with very much pomp and ceremony or the slightest of tourism trappings.
In fact, be prepared before you set off in its general direction, up North, for a bit of a mad-making, run-around in trying to pinpoint which of a thousand look-alike stone walls might actually be the real deal. Quite funny in retrospect, but nuts at the time.
For this is one historical landmark that takes quite a bit of homework to hit head on. And that's precisely what we hadn't planned on when we found ourselves driving along the A68 in its generation direction, detouring for what we'd guesstimated a half-hour or so en-route into Newcastle for curry.
Two hours later and after equal parts confusion, frustration, determination and laughs, we'd realized our folly in trying to find the wall by road. For it's clearly (we since discovered) far more sensible to focus on one of several major Roman forts, sites and museums along the way than to attempt a stumbling five-minute look-see and walk along the side of the mysterious wall.
Built by Emperor Hadrian beginning in 122, it was intended to keep Roman Britain safe from hostile attacks from the Picts at the northernmost boundary of the Roman empire.
A serious of road signs indicated that we were headed in the right direction after leaving the main road. Though each turn along country lanes indicated a teaser of another 3/4 mile or so, to the extent that we were driving round in circles. According to an elderly couple we flagged down after almost giving up, our best bet was to drive down into the nearest village and turn right. What they didn't tell us was that the village was aptly named "Wall", adding to the general hilarity by the time we reached its very own, isolated chunk of Roman rock by the pub. It seems that much of the wall has fallen to rack and ruin over the centuries, or pilfered more likely, resulting in random sections surviving in the fields.
Chester's Roman Fort was closed by that time of day, though the pub was still open! "Right, that was Hadrian's Wall," barked the Italian Husband, employing his own style as our personal 'Roman' tour guide. "You've all had a look, been there, done that." And off we whizzed into Newcastle, home of the Angel of the North and a curry house on every corner.
But did Hadrian have a permit to build the wall? Just kidding :-) I think...
Posted by: Frank Simpson | Friday, July 15, 2025 at 06:19 PM