Standing On Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall is neither unique nor original. Some now believe that the Romans were inspired by the Great Wall of China to build similar walls across Europe, most famously in North Britain. But even Hadrian's Wall is not unique to that small island. The Romans built the Antonine Wall, composed largely of trenches and turf embankments, at their most northerly frontier in Scotland - between the Forth and the Clyde. Some of the best artifacts from that wall can be found in the Hunterian Museum at the Glasgow University. Hadrian's Wall began as a turf barrier, too - with a deep trench in front, called the vallum, to trap onrushing Picts or Britons. When the stone wall was built, it was built to last. Up close, much of the masonry still looks impressively solid. It is only when you stand on it - which you are not encouraged to do, but will do anyway - that you begin to sense its fragility. Some of the stones underfoot begin to shift and relock themselves with that peculiar hollow resonance of loose rock - and you realize at once that nothing can last forever.