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73 miles of Roman frontier, coast to coast

Hadrian’s Wall, milecastle by milecastle.

Why an emperor built a wall across Britain, how the forts, milecastles, turrets and the Vallum worked, who lived there (soldiers from across the empire, women and children too), and how to walk the 84-mile National Trail. Every fact is checked against English Heritage, the National Trails, museums and UNESCO, and where they disagree we show both.

How the Wall worked Walking it

Our own simplified drawing of a turret on the Wall. Not a reconstruction: nobody knows exactly what the top looked like.
AD 122Hadrian visits Britain; the Wall follows English Heritage: History of Hadrian’s Wall
73 mileslong: 80 Roman miles English Heritage: Hadrian’s Wall FAQs
84 milesthe National Trail, coast to coast National Trails: Hadrian’s Wall Path, trail information
1987made a World Heritage Site English Heritage: Hadrian’s Wall FAQs

The short version

Hadrian’s Wall was built on the orders of the emperor Hadrian after his visit to Britain in AD 122. English Heritage: History of Hadrian’s Wall Hadrian’s biographer recorded that he ordered his army to “build a wall, 80 miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians”. English Heritage: Hadrian’s Wall FAQs

It runs from Wallsend in Newcastle upon Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria in the west. English Heritage: Hadrian’s Wall FAQs The first plan was a wall fronted by a wide, deep ditch, with a guarded gate (milecastle) every mile and two turrets in between. English Heritage: Description of Hadrian’s Wall

Mainly built by legionaries, the Wall was manned by auxiliaries, in regiments nominally 500 or 1,000 strong. English Heritage: History of Hadrian’s Wall Soldiers and civilians came to the Wall from as far away as modern Syria, Romania and North Africa. English Heritage: Hadrian’s Wall, History and Stories

For nearly 300 years the Wall was the north-west frontier of an empire that stretched to present-day Iraq and the Sahara. English Heritage: Hadrian’s Wall FAQs

NORTHSOUTHDitchWallVallum(a ditch between two mounds)120 Roman feet (about 35 m) wideup to about 4.6 m
Our schematic cross-section, north on the left: the ditch in front, the Wall, and the Vallum to the south. Not to scale. Heights and widths from English Heritage English Heritage: Hadrian’s Wall FAQs English Heritage: History of Hadrian’s Wall English Heritage: History of Hadrian’s Wall

Start exploring

The story, AD 43 to todayConquest, building, the Antonine Wall, stone robbers and World Heritage. How the Wall workedMilecastles, turrets, the ditch, the Vallum and the numbering. The fortsHousesteads, Chesters, Birdoswald, Vindolanda, Segedunum and Arbeia. Army & peopleLegionaries, auxiliaries, barracks, beer, birthdays and families. Walking & visitingThe 84-mile Trail, sections, passport stamps and the visitor code. The big facts pageEvery fact on the site in one list, each with its source.
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Soldiers from across the empire

The first cohort of Tungrians, recruited around Tongres in modern Belgium, garrisoned Housesteads from the late 2nd to the 4th century. English Heritage: History of Housesteads Roman Fort From the 3rd century Birdoswald was held by the first cohort of Dacians, recruited from what is now Romania. English Heritage: History of Birdoswald Roman Fort Arbeia at South Shields was held by the Fifth Cohort of Gauls and by a unit of Boatmen from the Tigris. North East Museums: Arbeia, the barracks (learning page)

And the writing tablets?

Most Vindolanda writing tablets date to around AD 100; they are thin slices of wood about postcard size, written in ink. British Museum: The Vindolanda tablets More on the Vindolanda tablets.

Oval: auxiliaryCurved rectangle: legionary
Our drawing of two shield shapes North East Museums: Arbeia, the barracks (learning page)
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Free Hadrian’s Wall printables sample, 6 pages. Pick your paper size:

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Hadrian’s Wall printables

Fact-checked PDFs in A4 and US Letter, for walkers, history fans, families and classrooms.

  • Hadrian’s Wall Path Walker’s Logbook

    Walkers and visitors

    Plan and log the 84-mile National Trail or a day visit: the six example sections, daily walk pages, passport stamp spots, tick lists of the milecastles, turrets and forts you can still see, Every Footstep Counts, and notes pages

    $3.99

  • Hadrian’s Wall Forts & Milecastles Reference Guide

    Adult history fans

    How the frontier worked, from the first plan to the Vallum; the forts of Housesteads, Chesters, Birdoswald, Vindolanda and Segedunum; garrisons, numbering, dimensions, dates, and every place where the sources disagree

    $5.99

  • Roman Army Life on Hadrian’s Wall Fact Pack

    Families, teens and adults

    Legionaries and auxiliaries, units from across the empire, barracks and rations, training, women and children on the frontier, and the Vindolanda tablets, with our own diagrams

    $4.49

  • Hadrian’s Wall Timeline & Poster Set

    Classrooms and home

    Seven poster pages: a two-part timeline from AD 43 to today, the Wall in cross-section, a strip map by milecastle number, inside a Roman fort, legionary or auxiliary, and the Wall in numbers

    $3.49

  • Hadrian’s Wall KS2 Activity Pack

    Ages 7 to 11, schools and families

    Label the Wall and a fort, a crossword where every answer is a real fact, a Roman numerals codebreaker, a word search, design-a-shield, legionary or auxiliary sorting cards, colouring, a birthday-tablet writing page, a certificate and an answer key

    $4.99

  • Hadrian’s Wall Teen Quiz & Challenge Pack

    Ages 12 to 16

    Five quiz rounds, a source-detective challenge on where historians disagree, Roman-mile maths, a primary-source reading of the Vindolanda tablets, and full answers with sources

    $3.99
Best value

The Complete Hadrian’s Wall Printables Bundle

All six packs plus a bundle guide, A4 and US Letter, in one download. $12.99 instead of $26.94 bought separately.

$12.99