Hadrian’s Wall Path: Day 8

Today was a Rest Day here at The Sill so I could visit Vindolanda, one of the best Roman archeological sites in Britain. Conveniently located just down the road from my hostel, I arrived about 10:30am and stayed 4 hours!

*Aerial shot of grounds: The main fort is encircled by the large rectangular wall, just beyond is the village, and the bottom right corner is where the excavation is happening*

There’s been settlements here for over 700 years, predating the Wall and lasting well beyond the Roman period which was AD85 – AD370. During the Roman occupation there were a series of 8 different forts here, all built on top of the other, with most of the earlier ones being built of wood so it was easy enough to cut them down and build anew. Most of these stone foundations date to AD213.

*Only soldiers lived within the fort, whole villages were needed to supply all their needs, to house the families, etc*

*Brilliant day but gale force winds, even standing upright was sometimes a challenge. I had 4 layers on but could have used one more*

*In the early 1970’s they built replica wood and stone turrets and portion of Wall*

The fort has been undergoing excavation for decades, in fact they hope to have it all completed by 2028. There was an active dig happening and I chatted to a few of the volunteers, both American by the way, who said their little group had already uncovered a nail, some bits of pottery, glass, and a spearhead this morning.

The finds here are especially well-preserved. Not only are items found under the layers of old buildings, it seems the ancients used the ditches outside the walls as rubbish tips to dump all their broken bits & pieces so everything was well preserved in the water and muck. In fact, Vindolanda has some of the best preserved Roman artifacts of their kind and is wonderfully presented in their museum.

*World’s largest collection of leather goods (over 7,000 items, 5000 of which are shoes yet only one complete pair has been found!)*

Considered a national Top Treasure are the 100’s of ink writing tablets – fragile, postcard-sized wooden leaves that provide the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain detailing ordinary things like soldier pay, quartermaster lists, most personably, a birthday invitation from one Roman lady to another

I spent a good 4 hours there, 2 wandering the grounds and another 2 at the museum & cafe.

Afterwards I decided to do a mini tour of the area by hopping on the Hadrian’s Wall bus, AD122, to see what I was missing by walking the route. This plan backfired slightly as the bus did not turn around at the end and come back again. Instead I had 1.5 hours to kill in Hexham so I made another visit to the Abbey cafe and had another look around town.