Housestead's Fort and Hadrian's Wall

After our day at Alnwick Castle, we drove down to a town called Hexham and stayed the night at a place called the Boatside Inn (we highly recommend it by the way- real ales, good food, and great rooms). Anyway, the next morning we went to see Hadrian's Wall.

Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans during the reign of emperor Hadrian. The Romans had conquered the land, but needed help controlling the crazy Britons to the North. So, they decided to build a physical wall that would span the entire width of England! Construction began in the year 122 AD.

A significant part of the wall still exists, and there are many walking, hiking, cycling paths that you can take to experience it. We decided to first go and see Housestead's Fort along the wall.

For being built in the second century, it's amazing how much of the fort still exists. The fort had barracks, a hospital, a granary, and latrines. We were all very impressed by the toilet system they had way back in the second century.

After we left the Fort, we drove about 5 or so miles down the road to see a different perspective of the wall at Crag Lough. The scenery was just gorgeous, and the wall was incredibly well-preserved.

Feel free to click on the video below. I took so many pictures that day that I decided to put them together as a slide-show (there are some captions).

The kids had so much fun climbing along the ruins and Ethan and I enjoyed experiencing a little history. We all appreciated being outside on another sunny, spring day.