Hadrians Wall

The Northern Frontier of Roman Britain

Hadrian’s Wall was a fortification built across the 120 kilometer length of Northern Britain made of stone and turf, stretching from Wallsend on the River Tyne to the shore of the Solway Firth. The Wall was built as a result of a survey of the security situation in Britain conducted by the Roman Emperor Hadrian during a visit to that island in the year 122.

Hadrian’s Wall was not meant to be an absolute barrier against a full scale barbarian invasion from the north. Rather it defined the limits of Roman power, providing a means to regulate the flow of commerce and peoples between the Roman province of Britain and the barbarian lands to the north, as a barrier against barbarian raids, and to establish peace and security in the region.  The gates through the Wall served as customs posts in order to provide a means to tax commerce flowing through them.

Construction of the Wall was conducted by soldiers from all three of the legions then occupying Britain. The route of the Wall took advantage of the terrain to maximize its strength. In part it followed the rock escarpment known as the Great Whin Sill.

When finished, within ten years after it was started, the Wall consisted of a limestone barrier about five to six meters high and two and a half meters wide, except for a section west of Irthing which was built of turf and was six meters wide and three and a half meters high. Later, the turf wall was replaced by one built of sandstone with the same dimensions of the limestone barrier east of Irthing