These troubles may have influenced Hadrian's plan to construct the wall as well as his construction of limites in other areas of the Empire, but to what extent is unknown. On his accession to the throne in 117, Hadrian had been experiencing rebellion in Roman Britain and from the peoples of various conquered lands across the Empire, including Egypt, Judea, Libya and Mauritania. Theories have been presented by historians, mostly of an expression of Roman power and Hadrian's policy of defence before expansion. According to restored sandstone fragments found in Jarrow which date from 118 or 119, it was Hadrian's wish to keep "intact the empire", which had been imposed on him via "divine instruction".Īlthough Hadrian's biographer wrote was the first to build a wall 80 miles long to separate the Romans from the barbarians", reasons for the construction of the wall vary, and no recording of an exact explanation survives. Hadrian's Wall was probably planned before Hadrian's visit to Britain in AD 122. The system of milecastles and turrets is known to have continued along the Cumbria coast as far as Risehow, south of Maryport.įor classification purposes, the milecastles west of Bowness-on-Solway are referred to as Milefortlets. The A69 and B6318 roads follow the course of the wall from Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle, then along the northern coast of Cumbria (south shore of the Solway Firth).Īlthough the curtain wall ends near Bowness-on-Solway, this does not mark the end of the line of defensive structures. Hadrian's Wall extended west from Segedunum at Wallsend on the River Tyne, via Carlisle and Kirkandrews-on-Eden, to the shore of the Solway Firth, ending a short but unknown distance west of the village of Bowness-on-Solway. In many places – for example Limestone Corner – the Vallum is better preserved than the wall, which has been robbed of much of its stone. This is known today as the Vallum, even though the word Vallum in Latin is the origin of the English word wall, and does not refer to a ditch. Immediately south of the wall, a large ditch was dug, with adjoining parallel mounds, one on either side. Some parts of this section of the wall survive to a height of 3 m (10 ft). The central section measured eight Roman feet wide (7.8 ft or 2.4 m) on a base. These dimensions do not include the wall's ditches, berms and forts. East of the River Irthing, the wall was made from squared stone and measured wide and high, while west of the river the wall was originally made from turf and measured wide and high it was later rebuilt in stone. Hadrian's Wall was 80 Roman miles or long its width and height varied according to the construction materials available nearby. While it is less than south of the border with Scotland in the west at Bowness-on-Solway, in the east it is as much as away. In fact Hadrian's Wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border. It is a common misconception that Hadrian's Wall marks the boundary between England and Scotland. In comparison, Antonine's wall, thought by some to be based on Hadrian's wall (the Gillam hypothesis), was not declared a World Heritage site until 2008. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions. ![]() The largest Roman artefact anywhere, it runs a total of in northern England. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.Ī significant portion of the wall still stands and can be followed on foot along the adjoining Hadrian's Wall Path. ![]() It is thought the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. From north to south, the wall comprised a ditch, wall, military way and vallum, another ditch with adjoining mounds. There was a fort about every five Roman miles. There were milecastles with two turrets in between. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire, immediately north of which were the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts. Hadrian's Wall (Vallum Aelium), also called the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin, was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian.
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