Vindolanda

Today I really did have the full English Breakfast. But first I had muesli with fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries topped with yogurt! 

Then the hot meal! Bacon, sausage, beans, egg, black pudding, fried tomatoes and mushrooms.

Norm helped a bit.

 Off we walked the 2 miles to Greenhead to catch the bus. We then walked about a mile to Vindolanda, a Roman fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall. This site was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. We spent 3 hours here. The first excavation was in 1814 and today we saw many volunteers still excavating. 

There are probably hundreds of years more to excavate. The man in the top left corner is pushing a wheelbarrow of dirt out of the way, lots of dirt. 

Hard on your knees.

This a photo of the fort. As we walked around we could see different buildings.

Workshops

Bath house

The photos don’t really show the scope of the site and that the stones are from almost 2,000 years ago. What is more amazing is that if they dig done 7 metres there are wooden structures that were replaced by more wood and eventually stone. 

Norm as Roman soldier in his turret.

The items found in Vindolanda are in the museum here. So much has been recovered. They have found 4,000 shoes. 70 found in one day but only one actual pair. 

And pottery, leather clothes, jewelry, combs, weapons, house hold items, coins ....

This is Hadrian’s coin.

There was so much to see! 

The most famous find were the Vindolanda tablets. These were wafer thin slivers of wood covered in spidery ink writing. They were like postcards from the past. Thousands were found in oxygen free deposits and are the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. Once exposed to air they turned black but with infra-red photographs, the script is able to be seen. Most are at the British Museum. 

Time to move on. Our plan is to hike to Housestead and on the way see the famous Sycamore tree. It is located in Sycamore Gap and was seen in 1991 Robin Hood with Kevin Costner. Good thing Norm knows these things.

From the main road but to really see it we had to hike more than 2 miles. 

Hadrian’s Wall 

Lots of ups and downs and it was hot today! No clouds, no wind.

A fort along the way.

More ups and downs with a little Sycamore tree on the side of the hill.

And finally The Sycamore Tree

Looking down as we came over the hill

Up close and from a distance 

Onward to catch our bus to get back to Greenhead 

Beautiful country 

In some places Hadrian’s Wall has grass planted on the top. This area is called Clayton’s wall. John Clayton in 1834 began buying land to preserve the wall. 

 Norm trying to save his finger from getting stuck in the wall. 

Not wanting to miss our bus, we could see the road and with only 15 minutes we headed that way. Unfortunately we found ourselves having to jump some locked gates. What we realized was that we in the Housesteads Roman Fort which one pays to enter. Oops, we jumped the last fence, walked up the road, through the entrance gate and out the door. 

Caught the bus in time and back to Greenhead (after our drinks and snacks) for our 2 mile walk home.