Hadrian's Wall

Last day of our trip and to start the morning out we saw some interesting things....

Every wondered where How, England was????

A bridge that we drove under in the the middle of the forrest...

The little village of Brampton where you are asked to "die carefully."

More signs of Roman influence on the area...

Our first stop was Lanercost Priory in the tranquil valley just a few miles from the Roman Birdoswald Fort. It was built in the mid 1100's but dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536...another one bites the dust. The church there still serves as the parish church and is fully in tact and adjoined to the ruins of the priory which is managed by the English Heritage group.

We had a little walk around the cemetery, picked some flowers, and played a game of tag as we waited for the site to open.

I snuck inside the church for a minute or two to see this amazing little church.

This poor monastery was attacked so many times by the Scots that it was struggling to survive financially. Eventhough they were monks and didn't live with much anyway they still needed to have the basics which either got stolen or destroyed each time they were attacked. It was also a key place for people to stay during the Anglo-Scottish wars. They said that even King Edward I rested here for 5 months after being injured in the wars.

It still amazes me how such places with such history can be the greatest playground for my kids. They run around in and on things that were regarded as such holy places and sacred to devout monks who were in silence. My kids are laughing and screaming about.

The nave's roof is now gone but you can imagine how beautiful it may have been with all the windows.

The transept was well in tact and it's so hard to think that this was the gathering place for the monks and 800 years ago where they hung out.

The kids playing in the old oven in the old prior's quarters which was actually converted into a house by the Dacre Family who took over ownership of the property after the dissolution.

After so many attacks and need to keep up the buildings, bits and pieces from the abandoned Roman forts and stones from Hadrian's wall were used for repairs. Addison is pointing at a stone that was replaced with chunk of a statue of a Roman soldier....most likely his leg. And above Kevin's head to the right is a stone with Roman writing on it which is likely to be from Hadrian's wall.

Hadrian's Wall is the most important and most impressive monument built by the Romans in Britian. The Romans were all about expanding their reign in the world and when Emperor Hadrian visited Britain in 122 AD he ordered a massive protective wall to be built to create a barrier from the "barbarians" or Scots to the north. The wall itself is 73 miles long and crosses straight across the northern part of England, but it isn't the dividing boundary between England and Scotland though. The thickness of the wall is a good 4 feet and there protected gates built every mile called milecastles. Between the milecastles they built two evenly spaced turrets or observation towers. Then they dug a deep ditch in front of the wall on the north side in most places. The Romans occupied the wall and the forts built along it for almost 300 years. It's absolutely amazing.

We visited two forts along the way. The first was the Birdoswald Fort in the west. The distinctive remains here are from two granaries. After several centuries the granaries were torn down and a timbered building was set up. The pillars of the old hall are marked by the wooden posts. Inside the hall the Roman soldiers would practice fighting skills and work out.

Addie enjoyed all the sheep that got to roam around the fort site.

Just taking it all in...

Standing by the well intact east gate of the fort, but you got to love the free roaming sheep all over the place. Watch out for sheep poo poo!

After lots of searching we found a great pub/inn to eat lunch at. I had a fabulous chicken and leek pie while Kev and the kids had fish and chips. Also the kids were long overdue for a play in a park so we found one to take a 1/2 hour break in.

The Sycamore Gap - This is the scene that I was wishing to be able to see and felt hopeless not knowing where along the 73 mile stretch of wall to find it. But as I was sitting in the car and flipping through the pictures on the camera before arriving at the next fort I SAW IT!!! I yelled..."It's the tree...the tree from Robin Hood!" Yes, it is the very tree that they filled Kevin Costner leaning against as he helps fight off the sheriff's men from threatening the young boy at the beginning of the movie. The tree is obviously much bigger now. Since it wasn't really safe to park on the side of the road, Kevin turned around, dropped me off, drove down a bit and turned back around to pick me up so I could get pictures. I was fulfilled and seen everything I dreamt of seeing on this trip...ready to go home now!

Our last stop of the day was Housested's Fort. The weather turned on us from sunny to cloudy and horribly windy but we fought our way up through the mile long trail to the top of this crazy hill to check things out. Here we are sitting on the fort wall which also butted up against Hadrian's wall and then continued on behind us back up the hill.

It is just amazing to see the mass and length of the beast of a wall.

Look how wide these fort walls are.

By now I had run out of space on our SLR camera so I resorted back to our little 7 year old digital camera for pictures at the fort. Addison has been quite keen on taking pictures so we let her take one of me in the fort's kitchen.

This was one of the officer's quarters and it was amazing the luxuries they had because this was a raised floor to that it could be heated!!!

Looking out a peak hole...trying to imagine what the Roman's view would have been like.

Addie standing in the soldier's station on the east gate. Even though the weather turned rubbish on us it was a great end of the day. Harrison by this time was pretty worn out and the chicken pox were multiplying by the hour and we were all anxious to get home, but that was a good four hour drive away.

On our way back through Newcastle I remembered to actually get a picture of the famous "Angel of the North" which is thought to be one of the most famous public works of art in England along with the largest reaching heights of 60 feet tall. It was pretty amazing to see and it's right off the A1 as you drive through Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

What a great holiday and I think we did Scotland to the fullest that we could possibly do...what an amazing place!!!