Exploring Ancient England: When the Romans Once Ruled the Land

Spent a few days travelling across northern England, following the ancient Roman Hadrians Wall.

Visiting ancient ruins of an era long since gone but not forgotten, we retraced the steps of Roman soldiers and explored ancient villages; some still standing, admiring the architecture of the Romans from an ancient past.

Known as Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman Wall is a 117.5km long wall which runs straight across England from the west to the east. Made from stone it’s an impressive feat of Roman Construction which still stands (in some part), as a reminder of an ancient boundry between the South and the North.

It’s still debated why the Roman’s built the wall. Some historians believe the wall was built to keep the Northmen out, whilst others claim evidence show if was simply a boundry wall, to what was Roman territory and what wasn’t.

Whatever the reason, it’s an amazing sight to see and one I highly recommend for all you road trip travellers out there – who like to get off the main road and explore the countryside.

I don’t know why I keep doing it to myself; and keep dragging my dad or partner with me, but I am forever exploring England in the winter time. Call me a sucker for punishment, but I actually like investigating old medieval castles, and exploring old Roman forts in the wet, cold and windy weather of England.

I think it’s because it gives me an idea of what people from the medieval period (or earlier) suffered through when they once wandered through the same lands I now explore today. Especially when standing on top of the Roman Walls.

Back then, the Romans commissioned many soldiers from the Mediterranean, Africa or the Middle East – can you imagine these poor soldiers guarding the borders in the ice and snow of England, never experiencing anything like it before – just crazy!.

I had a lot of fun retracing Hadrian’s Wall with my dad, traversing across the country side, tracking down the ruins of forts and walls, which once housed many Roman soldiers and even their families.

In the rain and bitter cold, we wandered through the grounds of many ancient forts, and although I have no crazy stories to tell about this amazing adventure, it was an incredible experience which I highly recommend.

You can pick up a book on Hadrian’s Wall from any Tourist Shop, or Historial Centres. These books are great, as they map out the whole wall in it’s entirety, so you can plan you trip from A to B and retrace the wall with ease.

The countryside off England from as far south to the north along Hadrian’s Wall hosts so many incredible sights, all leftover from the days when Romans walked the lands and ruled the people.

Their architecture, still remaining, surviving against some harsh environmental impacts of wind and rain almost every day of the year, is a true testament to how well they built their structures.