I mentioned the village of Aldborough some years ago. The day we went the English Heritage site was closed. In September 2023 it was open.

It’s a small site up a lane in the village but it opens out into somethig more substantial. There is also a small museum attached.

We wandered round both.

Roman perimeter wall/ditch:-

A smaller (closed off) building on the site contains a Roman mosaic:-

Another mosaic:-

Information in the museum about the above two:-

This one was under glass in the museum:-

The Bridgeness Slab represents a piece of Roman remains. It’s on Harbour Road, Bo’ness leading down into Bo’ness from the A 903. It’s a replica of a Roman distance slab. Bo’ness is not far from the Antonine Wall. The original is kept in the National Museum of Scotland.

Information board:-

Ruins at Vindolanda:-

The heart of the fort:-

A hypocaust:-

A corner tower:-

Information board about the temple to Jupiter Dolichenus:-

Information board for Prefect’s House:-

Ongoing excavations. Note the blue buckets:-

The main reason for our trip to Cumbria in April was to take in the two excavated Roman Forts open to the public we had not yet visited.

The first was at Birdoswald, near Gilsland.

On approaching the remains from the car park which is a bit down a small hill you meet this board telling you you are outside the Roman Empire. (As someone born in Caledonia I was quite comfortable with that!)

The wall behind the board:-

The wall with the board to the left:-

Information board:-

Ruins at Birdoswald. The Victorian building erected on the site is to the right here:-

Reverse view of ruins, Victorian building to left:-

Arbeia Roman Fort stood guarding the mouth of the River Tyne at what is now South Shields. Its now surrounded by housing on three sides but its remains have been excavated.

There is an exhibition centre but its entrance gate, Commandant’s House and a barrack block have been reconstructed. The entrance gate is particulalry impressive:-

Model of fort:-

Information board:-

Arbeia Fort site from top of entrance gate, reconstructed barrack block and Commandant’s House to right:-

An excavated corner of the fort:-

Original columns, recosntucted entrance gate seen through them. When excavated the columns were lying on their side. They have been re-erected where they would have stood:-

Hadrian’s Wall from northeast corner of Housesteads Fort:-

Hadrian’s Wall going east from Housesteads:-

Hadrian’s Wall from northwest corner of Housesteads Fort:-

West Gate, Housesteads Fort:-

The North Gate was the only part of Housesteads Fort that opened to the north. From this angle Hadrian’s Wall itself snakes off mid right towards upper centre.

North Gate information:-

The fort’s northwest corner:-

Internal ruins:-

Fort’s southwest corner. The Fort’s museum building is in the background:-

Southeast corner:-

West wall of the fort and the museum building:-

Housesteads Fort was one of the main forts situated along Hadrian’s Wall.

From the car park at the visitor centre it’s a fair walk into a valley and up again to the fort itself which is located on the crest of a hill-

Information board:-

Housesteads Fort Model (in the museum, housed in an old farm building hard by the fort):-

Fort design information board:-

Housesteads Fort from west:-

Administration Buildings:-

Chesters Fort was one of the Roman forts stationed along Hadrian’s Wall. It lies a few miles north of Hexham, on a position commanding a crossing point on the river North Tyne.

It was a posting for a troop of cavalry originally raised in what is now Spain.

As a result the remains of the stables take up a fair bit of the site towards the entrance:

This one was taken from further up the hill, stables to left, Commandant’s House to right.

An interval tower:-

Tower at South-East Angle of fort:-

Due to the legacy of Hadrian’s Wall the north of England is festooned with Roman ruins. They range from the reaonably large – the forts along the wall, not to mention the remnants of the wall itself – to quite small. One of the latter lies just off the B6318 at Carrawburgh, Northumberland. It is the remains of a Mithraic Temple. The B6318 runs south of Hadrian’s Wall and is very straight (see here at the Carrawburgh car park) presumably by following the course of a Roman original

Temple from path:-

Centre isle from entrance:-

The information board has a representation of how the inside of the temple would have looked when in use:-

Altar:-

At its centrepiece the altar has a small dish which presumably was originally intended to receive votive offerings. Certainly modern visitors have been leaving coins, sweets and, for some reason obscure to me, a piece of wood:-