This partially ruined wall marked the edge of the Roman empire in 122AD when Emporer Hadrian, struggling to invade Scotland while dealing with his rebellious British subjects at the same time, withdrew troops from the more Northerly Antonine Wall (earth ramparts) to consolidate their position. At 6m high this engineering feat took three Legions (15,000 men) only 6 years to build and is a symbol of both the power of Rome and it's limitations. It stretches from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the North East of England in an almost straight line clear across the country to Carlisle, and then on to Bowness-on-Solway where the river becomes unfordable and attacks from people wading across would no longer have been possible.
This idea of what it means to be invader and invaded has been with me for a long time, and the Wall symbolises a lot of that for me. My dad and uncle walked it together a few years ago while I was in university, and I'd been hoping to do the same (although unlike them, we won't have to walk from the Wall to our lodgings each night, as Nathan and Dad will be having a parallel holiday and have kindly agreed to pick us up and drop us off each day!) This year I mentioned it to my Mum and we decided to do the trip together. We would start at Heddon-on-the-Wall, the first place the Wall itself becomes visible, and finish in Carlisle. It's a 55 mile trip, it was to take us almost five whole days of walking, and as usual I kept a diary...
