Scotland is a long way from Rome – it would take about 60 days to march there.
Yet in this far-flung corner of the empire there stands one of the best Roman sites to visit – Hadrian’s Wall.
If you have seen pictures of it, it doesn’t look very spectacular – its no Great Wall. However the real treasure is Vindolanda, the fort and town that housed the soldiers who patrolled the wall. What makes it so special and unique is the fact that the soil is clay and clay is waterproof, which means organic material is preserved here. You never see clothing in a typical Roman museum only metal and stone.
We toured the wall with Rabbies Tours, I highly recommend this company. First we visited a stretch of the wall, then onto Vindolanda. The Rabbies tour guide didn’t talk much about Roman history, mostly Scottish facts and stories. There is a Vindolanda guide who will give you a little tour and give an excellent discussion about the site and its importance, included with admission. There is also a little museum with some amazingly preserved artifacts like: shoes, leather horse armor, wooden combs, wooden shovel, etc.
I’ll take a break from touring and give you some historical facts.
Hadrian ended his predecessor Trajan‘s policy of expanding the empire and instead focused on defending the current borders. The wall was the answer in Britian, since there were no rivers or other natural boundaries. With construction starting in 122, the entire length of the wall was built with an alternating series of forts, each housing 600 men, and manned milecastles, operated by “between 12 and 20 men”. It took six years to build most of Hadrian’s Wall with the work coming from three Roman legions.
Mike Duncan of the History of Rome podcast maintains that the primary purpose of the wall was to control movement, which would be channeled through the gates in the wall, where it could be monitored for information, prevented or permitted as appropriate, and taxed.
I wanted to mention the Antonine wall because it shows that even though Hadrian’s wall already existed the Roman’s still had designs on pushing forward. So the Romans were hanging out near modern day Edinburg and Glasgow.
The other place with some Roman history is the place where all of Scotland’s history resides, in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburg. As mentioned above the Antonine wall proves the Roman’s had a presence in Scotland. There are some of your typical stone carvings, etc. but the artifact I was excited to see the most was a milepost marker. Mary Beard talked about them in one of her documentaries, and I had never seen one before.
So in summary Hadrian’s wall is a very worthwhile detour if you are in Edinburg or Northern England (an hour drive from the Lake District). It is a world class site in the world of Roman ruins.