Hexham; Monday, 26 July, 2021

I had an early breakfast and was out of the hotel and at the station before 9am to catch an early train across Wall Country to the town of Haltwhistle. The reason for being out so early was to be able to catch the first of just three Tynedale buses a day that run from Halthwhistle out to Birdoswald, site of the Banna Roman Fort.

Banna is one of the large forts that were strategically positions along the wall, alongside the regular mile castles and turrets. Large parts of the site have been excavated, including some significant sections of the wall itself including the earth ramparts and ditches either side of the wall that made up part of the fortifications.

The fort itself is high on a rocky outcrop with an almost sheer drop down to the river below and views across the Cumbrian countryside and across into the start of the Lake district. On a warm sunny summers day for a tourist it’s a beautiful spot, but for a conscripted legionnaire from the southern end of the Empire up here on a cold winters day this must truly have been the end of the earth.

From Birdoswald I hopped back on the Tynedale bus back to Walltown, located on the course of the wall and the Roman Army Museum. The museum is located on the site of the next fort East along the wall – Magnis. The site of the fort haven’t been excavated, so there aren’t any ruins to walk around, but instead the museum tells the history of the Roman Army here at the edge of the Empire, and has an interesting 3D film that shows some of the key parts of the wall that are located nearby – without the need to actually go and hike up to them.

Next to the museum is the site of a former quarry, which has been turned into a country park, with views up to the steep ridge rising up behind it which houses the next mile castle and parts of the wall upon it. I stopped here for a lunch break, grabbing some snacks from the visitors centre, whilst I waited for my bus on. From this point on my journey forward I would be in the hands of the AD122 – a bus route dedicated to serving the main points on the wall from Hexham to Haltwhistle.

After lunch I caught the AD122 a couple of stops up the road to The Sill Visitors Centre. This is a centre of the Northumberland National Park and it gives a bit of history on the foundation of the national parks in the UK, as well as an exhibition on Energy conservation and the environment. More importantly you can climb up the gently sloping roof of the centre to take in the stunning views from the top of the centre over to Steel Rigg – a long ridge that was used by the Romans as a natural boundary on which they then built Hadrians Wall. Some of the most stunning parts of the wall are visible from here, with structures disappearing into the distance.

From The Sill it was just one stop on the AD122 on to the site of the one of the most famous of the Hadrian Wall structures – the fort at Vindolanda.

Like Corbridge, Vindolanda itself is a couple of miles south of the wall and acted more as a supply centre than a fort, and consequently it grew into a large site with a vicus as big as, if not larger, than the fort itself. It’s also the location where some of the most important Roman remains have been found. The Vindolanda tablets are a series of wooden tablets that show the everyday life of people in the fort. One of the most famous tablets is the birthday invitation, which is believed to be the oldest examples of writing in Latin by a woman. That tablet – along with many others, are actually in the British Museum in London, but a few are still on display in the impressive museum located on site.

I spent a long time looking round the site – so long in fact that I had to use the out of hours exit to get out of the site as the ticket office and visitors reception had long since closed by the time I made it back to the top of the site.

Thankfully, I had kept a bit of an eye on the clock, so I made the last AD122 of the night that started off by heading back to Haltwhistle, before turning in the once a day X122 and speeding back into Hexham down the main road. Back in Hexham I grabbed a well deserved dinner before heading back to the hotel.