Ancient Roman Vindolanda & the Hunt for Hadrian’s Wall

On day *we lost count* of our English road trip, we left York, and this became a Scottish road trip!

On to Scotland we go!!!

Our family has a great deal of Scottish ancestry, and we were excited to see a small part of Scotland. Plus, the road trip days were good for recovering my poor right heel. I had (and still have) a killer case of plantar fasciitis. These long tourist days were a problem.

We only had one goal left for England. Locate Hadrian’s Wall, and take some photos of it.

That was easier said than done. I’d asked around and learned there were good places to see the ancient wall near the historic park of Vindolanda.

Hadrian’s Wall was the wall built to mark the furthest northern boundary of the Roman Empire.

For a brief time Rome tried to go even further and built the Antonine Wall (further up in Scotland). But Hadrian’s Wall was the better built and more famous one, and Alan and I were excited to see it.

Legend goes that the Romans could not beat back the unruly Scots, so they walled them off. As a person of Scottish ancestry, there is something undeniably marvelous about being possibly the only people the Romans couldn’t conquer!!

I had to see this, and Alan readily agreed with me. After twenty-three years together, we have far more shared interests than we did in the beginning I think.

As our boys grow older, they actually find our field trips more and more interesting too. So have patience if you have children who do not share your enthusiasm for a historical vacation destination! They may come around yet.

“And what is Vindolanda?” you might ask.

Vindolanda is an ancient Roman settlement smack dab in the middle of nowhere in northern England. It is believed to be a headquarters for the Roman Army while they were building Hadrian’s Wall. The village of Vindolanda predates the wall!

Vindolanda is this huge Roman fort and current archaeological study site. The community was built and re-built nine times! Nine times!? I’m no expert, but it sounds like the local Northumbrians put a fight up to the Romans the whole time.

How is it Alan and I always end up at an archaeological site on our vacations? Ha! We love this stuff. I felt like Vindolanda and the area around it had a very mythical feel. The unearthed ghost town of stone, the beautifully deep green grass all around, the sheep and cows in the background, the overall abandoned atmosphere of the area in combination with the deep gray cloudy skies constantly threatening rain, made the whole area an enchanting portal to the past.

If I had had two healthy feet, I could have walked around there all day!

However, we did not feel like we had too long to explore. It had already rained on us a little, and the clouds assured us they had more to give. Plus, we had this mission to find Hadrian’s Wall and to get to Scotland.

We still managed to cover most everything outside and only bypassed the Roman museum. In retrospect, I cannot believe we didn’t visit the museum. We would have learned so much more of the Roman history if we had taken the time to see it.

Uncovered stone was everywhere, and I feel like if they kept digging, even more and more Roman ruins lie beneath the beautiful carpet of green grass.

They have rebuilt a replica at the Vindolanda Archaeological park of a Roman fort of the time. It reminded us much of the York City Walls and the Tower of London. The stones look much cleaner though. It still looks like new construction. The shocking thing is the builders tried to use Roman methods and test out how their replica would hold up. Oddly enough, the reconstructed fort sank into the ground over the short time that it has been up. I cannot remember the exact number, but it was something like in ten years it shrank like forty feet. My numbers are off, but it was a shocking amount!

I wanted to look up information on this for you with exact information, but I could not find anything online! I wish I’d kept a brochure, but I’ve misplaced it.

The good news is there is a book about Vindolanda’s history, and this is the link to buy it on Amazon. (*Disclaimer that I do make ad money off my Amazon links) I am ordering it too.

Of course, we all enjoyed climbing on this fort replica and reading about it.

Romans and Normans alike when they would set up a tower, or fort, or castle, would always build it in timber first. In fact, some castles never made it past the timber stage. The ones that lasted through centuries are made of stone. Doesn’t it make you think of the three little pigs? Ha! I am thankful to currently be living in a house of brick!

I mean, what community doesn’t want a pool?

Don’t you love the scenery here? It was so quiet, and nature was kind of showing off with how enchanting it all was. Even with my eagerness to see Hadrian’s Wall and make it to Scotland, it felt sad to leave it.

After Vindolanda, we thought we could follow road signs and GPS and find Hadrian’s Wall fairly easily.

No. We were wrong. Turns out, Hadrian’s Wall is not commercialized at all. This was surprising to Alan and me because we both thought of it as such a big deal!

Also, I should mention that English people have plenty of stone fences. They are everywhere, so just because you see a nice long stone barrier, that does not mean it’s an ancient Roman wall.

Everywhere we drove to try to find Hadrian’s Wall turned out to look like someone’s private property full of livestock pastures and a dead end.

We constantly felt like we were trespassing on farm land. The stereotype about the fields of sheep in the UK is right on the money. Sheep everywhere! I thought that was cool though. In America, we are more likely to have fields of cows. I rarely see sheep, but then I do not live in the country either.

In our search for the famous Hadrian’s Wall, we’d pull up to an area, and look around like, “Well? Is it here? Where is it exactly? Are we allowed to drive there?”

Plus, Alan and I were up against a few challenges in addition to feeling like we were trespassing in a foreign country:

1. Complainers in the backseat: The boys did NOT care for our Hadrian’s Wall Quest. They wanted to move on.
2. It was starting to rain.
3. My feet were shot again from the Vindolanda walk, and I did not trust them to get me through a WET, grassy field in uneven terrain.

As it turns out, if you want to see the wall for real, you must do at least a little hiking.

We finally found a spot where we were sure the wall was close by, and we were able to pull off the road in a parking area where we did not feel like we were showing up on somebody’s farm uninvited.

We ended up at the part of the wall called Walltown Crags.

I say that “we” finally found the wall, and we did.

However, it was only Alan who got out of the car, crossed the grassy fields in the rain, and took the photos.

The boys stayed in the car with me, thanks to plantar fasciitis and the rain. I was still happy though. I felt like Alan got the photos for us, and I had the satisfaction of being parked there anyway. You do what you can. It’s like when we were in York, and Alan and Caleb saw York Minster for us. I felt represented, and I got the photos, so I was happy.

It was no small jog from the car to the wall in the rain. Once Alan got out, our car was swarmed by flies!

The boys sounded the alarm from the backseat. “Ewww! Mom, look at all the flies on Dad’s side! We’ve got to move the car so when Dad gets back he doesn’t let all the flies in the car!”

Hmmm. Well, let’s give it a few minutes. This should take him a while.

It took him no time at all. He did that half mile, hilly and rocky jog in the rain like it was nothing, and boom, he was back!

I maneuvered my way over the car console and sat down in the driver’s seat without exiting the vehicle. We figured I’d move the car away from the swarm. Hopefully, it wouldn’t follow us. Dad could hop in the passenger seat, and then we could drive a few yards and switch back.

That was the only time in our whole England trip that I ever drove the car.

And of course, the swarm followed us, so it was all for nothing. Somehow, none of them got in the car though! So it was a win.

We got back on the road and headed for Stirling, Scotland.

It may seem odd that we skipped Edinburgh, but we aren’t really big city people.

I mean, we live in a big city, and all the crowds do get old. It’s nice to take a vacation to smaller places instead. I picked Stirling because of all the history with Bannockburn, Sir Robert the Bruce, and William Wallace. Also, this is where the Scottish Highlands meet the lowlands. It is in the geographical center of the country, to the south. Plus, Stirling Castle looked like an excellent castle to tour. We do love a castle.

I’ll tell you all about Stirling in my next post.

Our last outing of our England to Scotland road trip was a stop at Cafe 91 in Lockerbie, Scotland.

The food was yummy, and this was a memorable stop. For one thing, the place was an hour out from closing when we arrived, though we didn’t realize it at the time. It closes at five o’clock. I guess dinner restaurants and lunch places are two different things in the U.K. We had trouble with this.

The two waitresses were beautiful young ladies with the thickest Scottish accents I’d ever heard. In fact, Scotland solidly did not disappoint with the accents!

Also, our family fooled absolutely no one. Everyone automatically knew we were an American family. I guess our cultural camouflage wasn’t good.

Alan ordered a Scottish meat with his meal called “black pudding.” We asked them what black pudding is, and they said it’s really best to eat it first and then ask. Ha! Alan was a good sport and did just that. I tasted it too. We never did ask them about the ingredients. We could tell they wanted to go home.

Instead, I looked it up online. Black pudding is also called blood sausage, and it is made with pig’s blood, oatmeal, pig fat, and spices. Not exactly kosher, but that’s okay.

We were so excited to be in Scotland! After our early dinner in Lockerbie, we drove on to the Holiday Inn in Stirling. It was an excellent hotel with an outstanding breakfast.

I can’t wait to tell you all about Stirling Castle in the next post.

It was the best day, and the Scottish people were by far our favorite. I’m telling you the Scots are like American Southerners! They were so welcoming. We had the best time.