Hadrian’s Wall was named after the emperor who commissioned it and was begun in the second century, in the year 122.
Soldiers toiled for about 10 years, piling stone upon stone until it stretched from coast to coast, across the very top of what’s now northern England: a distance of 118 kilometers.
It stood up to 4.6 meters high with walls 3 meters wide with towers, forts and watch posts and gave commanding views of the surrounding countryside.
The wall let the Romans control who and what came into the empire and kept the peace. Beyond it were war-mongering clans in what is, today, Scotland, wanting to invade the settlements of Roman Britain and Hadrian’s Wall kept them out.
Almost 2,000 years on, long sections on Hadrian’s Wall still stand, remarkably well-preserved. The thick stone line snakes for miles across rugged uplands, and down into wooded valleys.
UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in 1987.
If you visit:
By car:
Birdoswald Fort is 6.4 kilometers west of Greenhead, off the B6318. There are signposts as you get nearer. Sat nav: CA8 7DD.
Visitors can combine Birdoswald Fort with Housesteads Fort, a short drive away.
By train:
The nearest train stations are at Brampton and Haltwhistle, about 11 kilometers away.
By bus:
The local Go Northeast company runs seasonal routes to points along Hadrian’s Wall with its AD 122 service, https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/ad122/
Take a look at the English Heritage website: