Vindolanda
April 28, 2017
For our last day in England, we headed north from York to Vindolanda, where the Romans built a succession of forts, starting before the building of Hadrian's Wall. The early forts were made of wood, and the later ones of stone. Each was destroyed when the Romans left. Later they would rebuild on the same site. You may visit the excavations that show mostly ruins of the most recent fort. There are an excellent visitor center, some recreations of Roman buildings, and a lovely countryside to view. There is a reconstruction of towers as were found built on Hadrian's Wall, both of wood and of stone. You may go into the towers and up on the wall of these full-sized models.
On the way we passed many fields of rape seed, which is grown for the oil used both in cooking and as alternate fuel.
This was the headquarters building. The room you see was the treasury, and the large stone was the counter over which the troops were paid.
This is the ditch where they excavate for even earlier artifacts.
Mausolea
Along the ridge to the left of the picture are remains of Hadrian's Wall.
This enlargement from the upper left of the above picture lets you see the wall remains a little more clearly.
Look on the ridge on the left of the picture and near the center.
These are modern constructions showing what Roman-era buildings were like.
After a late lunch, we traveled through pastoral settings with real sheep and everything toward the Scottish border.
You can see many sheep pictures on Paige's blog. It was lambing season, and many lambs were about two weeks old.
