Hadrians Wall Country 5: Housesteads

Day two of our Hadrians Wall trek dawned with high clouds promising a dry day. We had had a good rest at the inn, although chatter and music drifted up from the pub downstairs till late. Not too loud, but noticeable.

The door to our room was the first one as guests came up the stairwell, so we heard everyone trundle up to their rooms. Later, as the beer kicked in, there was a veritable cattle stampede for the loo, but if I'd brought my earplugs I would not have noticed any of it.

Eight in the morning and it seemed all the overnight guests arrived for breakfast at once. That meant it took awhile to be served our hot portion of breakfast (eggs, tomato, bacon, beans, etc) but there was cereal, juice, coffee etc to keep us going till then. The sausages seemed to be a cheap supermarket brand, as was the white bread. It's a shame when a pub does not support the local farmers, bakers and butchers.

We dawdled a bit before striking out on the longest hike of the trip so far, a 4-mile ramble down country lanes to the Roman village of Vindolanda then through sheepfields to the Roman fort at Housesteads. This map roughly shows the route, except near marker E we cut across the fields to reach marker F (the Housesteads ticket office).

Vindolanda was a settlement before the construction of the wall, which is why it does not sit directly on Hadrian's frontier. It sits slightly outside the Northumberland National Park boundaries and is operated by a private trust. When we arrived at 9.15 that morning, we would have had to wait 45 minutes for it to open. We decided to save our pennies for another day and push on, as the clouds seemed to be breaking up.

Further up the road we got a free peek of the site anyway (I recommend clicking the above photo).

The scenery is lovely in these parts and aside from a passing mailvan we didn't see a soul. For a spell, we walked along the route of the Stangegate, the Stone Road built by the Romans. Zoom in on the map I've provided a link for above and you'll see it labelled leading east from marker E.

We crossed the highway with care and climbed up to the Housesteads ticket office run by English Heritage. Once through the gates we had to climb still further, so I was nearly knackered by the time we reached the hilltop fort.

Housesteads is the most intact Roman fort in the British isles and enjoys a spectacular hilltop site.

The views stretch in all directions, over fields and moors and forests, with hardly a house or road to be seen aside from what the Romans themselves left behind.

About a thousand soldiers would have been based here at any one time, in addition to the civilians who would have lived near the barracks. I think the stones above would have supported the floor of a granary.

In Roman times it was known as Vercovicium, which some people translate as 'The Place of the Fighters'.

The Romans were renowned for their hygiene and even on this remote hilltop which had no natural source of water except for rain, they managed to install a bath house and this latrine. Loo with a view!