'Hadrian's Wall Path'

Location : Gilsland / Brampton / Carlisle / Bowness-on-Solway

Hadrian's Wall between Gilsland and Birdoswald

Hadrian's Wall is the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain. It stretches seventy-three miles from Wallsend near Newcastle, across the neck of England to Bowness-on-Solway in North West Cumbria, and stands today as a reminder of the past glories of one of the world's greatest empires.

It was built in the 120's AD and because it was not an impenetrable barrier, forts were built at seven mile intervals, milecastles (small guard posts) were built at one mile intervals, and two turrets (towers) were placed between each pair of milecastles, for observation. In front of the wall lay a ditch, except where the crags made it unneccessary. The wall crossed three rivers, and bridges were built.

Within Cumbria are one fort at Birdoswald, Willowford Bridge near Gilsland, and several milecastle and turrets, including Banks Turret.

The rest of the Wall is in Northumbria. Nothing East of Banks Turret exists today. The system of milecastles and turrets continued down the Cumbrian coast for another 26 miles to Maryport, though no wall was built here. There are excellent remains of a mileforlet at Crosscanonby, just north of maryport.

• Walking the Hadrian's Wall Path - with Peter & Jeanne Donaghy, and John & Gillian Laidler
• Walking the Hadrian's Wall Path - with Suzanne Worthington and the BBC Radio Cumbria team
• Some aerial pictures of Hadrian's Wall - by Simon Ledingham
• Hadrian's Cycleway - a Coast to Coast "The Roman Way" cycle route

Related Links :

• Wikipedia - Hadrian's wall

• Open Directory - Hadrian's Wall Path

• The Official National Trail Guide - 'Hadrian's Wall Path' by Anthony Burton, published 2003, describes the entire route, with Ordnance Survey maps, photos, and details of the major archaeological sites.

• 'The Great Wall of Britain - A Walk Along Hadrian's Wall' by Anton Hodge, takes you on a geographical and historical tour of the Roman Wall from the Tyne to the Solway. To find out more see www.antonhodge.co.uk, and the Hayloft website.

• Hunter Davies has written the book A Walk Along the Wall, part travel, part archaeology, part sociology and all of it his own personal experience of spending a year studying and walking Hadrian's Wall.

• There are visitor centres with gift shops at the major fort sites (in Northumbria) : Housesteads, Chesters and Corebridge, which are managed by English Heritage. Each publishes its own guide book.

• The video 'Edge of Empire' from Striding Edge co-produced with the Ordnance Survey, is a fascinating journey along the 73 miles of the Roman Wall World Heritage Site, Eric Robson unravels some of the mysteries of 2500 years of history.

• See also Lake District Explorer for a CDROM guide to Hadrian's Wall.

Places to Stay :