context

HADRIAN’S WALL Day 2, Heddon to Chollerford A couple of weeks later I am back at Heddon and at my first freestanding section of wall, approximately 100 metres long. I am impressed. Constructed of regular stone blocks to each face and a rubble core, it is chunky and solid looking. The wall is followed by the Military Road, built by General Wade in the 1750s to help deal with the Jacobite uprisings. Its construction was the single most destructive act known to have happened to the wall, which was used for the road’s foundations. The path also feels blighted by traffic. Unexpectedly, after some miles, the road diverges slightly away from the wall and the Vallum comes into sight, with views stretching for miles to the south. There is a real sense of history that stops me in my tracks. It’s glorious. I pass Planetrees, where more wall stands proudly exposed. Here a change in the wall’s construction is visible, as it was reduced in width. If you were walking along the top of the wall, passing other people, this difference would be noticeable. Why this change occurred is not known, although a narrower wall requires less material and would be quicker to construct. As I come in sight of the River Tyne, I visit the remains of the Roman bridge abutments, large cutwaters that appear amazingly modern. Lewis holes are visible in many, a reminder of how little many traditional skills have changed over millennia. Day 3, Chollerford to Housesteads I start by passing Chesters Fort and museum, just to the north of the River Tyne. Soon the trail enters the Northumberland National Park. As the landscape becomes wilder, Black Carts Turret comes into view where, again, the deci- sion to narrow the construction of the wall is clearly visible. Continuing onwards and uphill, I reach the remains of the fort of Brocolitia, or Carrawburgh as it is known today. It offers a very different experience to the better-known forts, such as Chesters. While the massive platform of the fort is visible and looms over the path, there is no visitor centre or exposed footings of buildings. Covered with long grass, it is a bleak and intimidating site. Leaving Carrawburgh, I meet a group of volunteers carrying out conservation work to a damaged drystone wall. It is the eternal dichotomy: tourists unwittingly knock down the field boundaries and wear away the paths. It is important for people to visit but, in so doing, they damage the very thing that they are here to see. As the landscape becomes wilder, I pass more regular stretches of visible wall. Before I know it, I am at my final stop for the day: Housesteads Fort, the most iconic and dramatically located of the wall forts. Standing at the north of the site, you can see the wall snaking off away to the east and it is easy to imagine it as a frontier, with civilisation on one side and barbarianism on the other. In reality this was likely never the case; while the wall may have been a symbolic frontier, the Romans were highly active beyond it. Day 4: Housesteads to Birdoswald Back at the wall, despite the fact that it is raining, I am really looking forward to my route today. It passes through some of the most spectacular scenery on the whole trail. The wall ascends and descends in a lurching series of small peaks and troughs, known as gaps. Many of these have names, the best known being Sycamore Gap. I am fortunate; for once no one else is around. I make the most of it, taking photographs from all angles. I am also doubly fortunate as less than a week later the tree has been brutally chopped down. The peaks give excellent views both to each side and down on to the wall, with its mile- castles and turrets. The wall follows the top of the Whin Sill, a dramatic, cliff-like outcrop of Dolerite rock, and I soon pass Winshields, the highest point of the wall at 375 metres above sea level. Dropping down, I cross the River Irthing. Intriguingly, the original wall west of the Irthing was of a fundamentally different construction to that to the east, being built of turf. This was subsequently replaced in stone on a slightly different alignment, which here survives impressively. At last I arrive at Birdoswald. I walk round the remains of the fort, particularly admiring the views to the south. I am used to thinking of the wall as protecting the civilised south from the barbarian north. In fact, for much of its length, the views to the south are at least as good as the views to the north. Perhaps the Romans were watching their backs as much as looking for enemies attacking from the north. Day 5, Birdoswald to Carlisle I start by following the stone wall west from Birdoswald before heading slightly south to join the turf wall. The image of Hadrian’s Wall being built of stone is so strong that it is hard A view of Sycamore Gap before the tree was felled