The Walls

Hadrian's Wall - 120AD

The first phase of building the great barrier from East to West took about four years. It extended over 80 Roman miles (about 73 of our own miles, 117Km) and took advantage of every natural feature to command clear views of likely enemy approaches. Hadrian did not stay to supervise the work but left definitive instructions for its progress. From East of Newcastle to Gilsland there was to be a solid stone wall continued thereafter by turf because of the dearth of good local stone in the Agricolan forts already spaced out along the Stangate to the rear.

By the time a long sweep of stone defences had been completed it was evident that certain amendments would be desirable. To speed up construction and economise on materials, the prescribed thickness of 10ft (3m) was reduced to 8ft (2.4m) though where lower parts had already been built to the 10ft (3m) standard, the reduced gauge was simply added on top.

It was realised that lookout towers and forts were essential on the actual line of the wall, portions of which had to be chipped out to allow for these insertions. Fortlets known as milecastles at intervals of a Roman mile housed complements of up to 50 men. Between each two milecastles were two evenly spaced signal turrets. Larger forts at strategic points had barracks for up to 1,000 troops each. The turf embankment beyond Gilsland began with Fortlets of earth and timber, gradually replaced by stone. Beyond the end of the Wall proper at Bowness a number of mile-fortlets and watchtowers were spaced out for a further 40 miles (65Km) down the Cumbrian coast, but not joined by a wall.

There were two accompanying ditches, one about 25ft (7.3m) wide and of varying depth immediately in front of the Wall, and behind the Wall a similar ditch known as the Vallum with mounds 10ft (3m) high along either side. This rear ditch marked the administrative boundary of the province and also served to protect the backs of the defenders from the unreliable Brigantes, part of whose territory in fact stretched beyond the Wall.

All construction work was done by legionary engineers, but the garrisons were supplied by auxiliaries under Roman officers. As was the practice in such situations, most of them came from other parts of the Empire. The Wall is rich in the inscriptions of legions, which built it and came cohorts that served along it.

Hadrian's wall - Today

Housesteads Milecastle - 124AD

Housesteads occupies a commanding position on the cliffs of the Whin Sill. One of the twelve permanent forts built by Hadrian, between milecastles 36 and 37.

Housesteads is the most complete example of a Roman fort in Britain. Its visible remains include four gates, with towers between them, and their curtain walls, as well as the principal buildings from within an auxiliary fort: military headquarters, commandant’s house, barracks, granaries, hospital and latrines.


Housesteads - 124AD	Housesteads - Today

The Antonine Wall - 142AD

Hadrian’s adopted son and successor, Antoninus Pius, found himself faced by renewed belligerence from the Picts and Scots, and decided to move troops forward to a shorter defence line used previously by Agricola. The main strongepoints along Hadrian’s Wall were evacuated in favour of a new turf rampart on a stone foundation, known to us as the Antonine Wall.

It stretched from Bridgeness on the Forth estuary Old Kilpatrick on the Firth of Cyde, thirty-seven mile in all. On a four metre wide foundation of rough stone held in place between two lines of dressed kerbing, they raised the wall, not in stone, but in blocks of turflaid like bricks. When finished it stood six meters high including its heavy wooden battlements, a great rampart joining nineteen forts built at two-mile intervals.

In front was a gasping ditch more than twelve meters wide and four deep. Behind ran the military way, a road on which troops could move quickly and easily. The Roman sentries from their cold high perch on the rampart walk, could see the high ground of the Kilsyth hills and the Campsie Fells beyond which rose the brooding mountains of the northern tribes. For those Caledonians who ventured south with their minds set on plunder there was now a daunting barrier stretching mile upon mile, from coast to coast. The frontier had moved North once more.

It did not serve its purpose for long. The forts were inadequate for the garrisons required, and some time after 158AD it became necessary to fall back on Hadrian’s Wall.

Evidence of the Antonine Wall’s full history is scanty, but obviously there were phases of occupation, abandonment, and reoccupation over some 40 years.

Antonine wall - Today

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