I cycle 36 miles from Carlisle to Vindolanda
On day two of my trip, I’ll be leaving Carlilele and ending up at Vindolanda Roman Fort. But first, some information about Hrien and the wall. Hrien was obsessed with architecture and loved designing great buildings. Here’s some of them. This is Hrien’s villa outside Rome. It’s the most imposing and complex Roman villa we know about. It’s bigger than the entire city of Pompei. The temple of Venus and Roma is thought to have been the largest temple in ancient Rome. Hrien even built a mosalem for himself, the Castell Santangelo in Rome. Hrien came to Britain in person and stayed for a few months. His personal involvement in the decision to construct a wall and its design is clear. The initial design for the wall is grand but not as grand as it would become. This is an indication of Hrien’s personal involvement. The western section of the wall from Boness on Sway was built of turf timber and earth and it was about 20 ft wide at its base. It then continued as a stone wall for 45 miles to the east eventually ending at Wall’s End on the Tine. The stone wall was planned to be about 10 ft wide and was freestanding. In front of the wall, there was a wide and deep ditch. Here’s my drawing of what the wall would have looked like. The ditch was on the north side of the wall. This quick drawing will give you a general idea of how they built the wall with the ditch in front of it. And then every Roman mile which is slightly less than our mile there was to be a mile castle a small fort its north wall part of the wall itself and both north and south walls having a gateway between the mile castles and also forming part of the wall itself were two turrets which were built in stone even on the turf wall. Now I’ll head out of Cland. The first fort I’ve come to on this journey is Bertoalt for it was built a stride t wall part of the wall and one of the stone turrets was partially demolished to accommodate it. The fort may have begun as a turf and timber construction, but this phase was not completed and the stone fort was begun instead. The turf wall was then replaced in stone following a different course so that Berdos was completely contained behind the wall. And here’s what’s left of the wall. And in case you were wondering, I’m Now at the Roman Army Museum, this awardwinning site brings to life what it meant to serve as a Roman soldier nearly 2,000 years ago. Inside you’ll find authentic armor, weapons, and even a 3D film that transports you to the edge of the Roman Empire. The museum doesn’t just show the battle. It also reveals the daily life of soldiers, where they slept, what they ate, and how they trained. Standing here, you get the real sense of the discipline and organization that made the Roman army one of the most powerful forces in history. Vindelander was built by the Roman army before they built Hadrien’s wall. It then became an important construction and garrison base for the wall, a Hadrien’s wall fort in its own right. During this time, Vinderlander was demolished and completely rebuilt no fewer than nine times. After Hedrian’s wall and the Roman occupation was abandoned by its imperial armies, Vindelanda remained in use for over 400 years before finally becoming abandoned in the 9th century. The top find from the site are the Vinderlander writing tablets. The small wooden postcard size documents recorded the daily life of people who used to live here. These include letters from soldiers asking for socks and underwear, a birthday party invitation to the commanding officer’s wife, requests for payment, lists of goods supplied, and troops deployed. They are the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.