Housesteads 1,900 year old Roman Fort on Hadrians Wall - including the coolest art installation

Its day 4 of our holiday in North East England, and today we drove along Hadrian's Wall - a Roman Fortified Wall to keep out the Barbarians (the Scots !) from the Roman Empire. We started at Housesteads Fort.

The Fort is around 1,900 years old. Although there are many milecastles along the wall which stretches from coast to coast across the top of England, there were also some larger forts which held greater numbers of soldiers, and Housesteads is the best preserved example.

Due to its age, its only really the foundations and lower parts of walls that remain of the fort, but its still very clear, and has been excavated and explained well.

We've been before, but the addition above was new. Its an art installation in the size and shape of one of the four main gates of the fort. Its a scaffolding structure, around the footings of the original north face gate - and you can go inside and get great views around. It really was impressive !

The remains are really impressive, and its clear to see that the Romans were awesome stone workers. Here you can see the remains of a number of stone pillars from one of the buildings.

And above is a grain store (granary). Those pillars where to support the floor to allow air to flow around the building and keep the grain in good condition - which would have been important to support a settlement of the size back on those days (around 800+ soldiers, with additional workers, families, etc - so fairly large).

The remains really are quite impressive, and cover quite a large area.

And a small exhibition area on-site houses some of the more intricate carvings like the one above, which is incredible.

In the picture above you can see how the wall then continues to snake-away from the corner of the fort, in this case running towards Newcastle, and the east coast, where it meets the North sea.

The wall certainly is an impressive structure, and it allowed the Romans to control the border defensively, but also trade, which would also have been important.

The art installation was superb, and having visited the fort a number of times previously, it really was a highlight of the day.

And one thing that Housesteads is particularly famous for is its Latrines ! Above you can see how they intricately engineered the latrines and plumbing, with running water all working under gravity. This is in one of the lower corners, and the fort drainage system would bring water to a tank in the corner to allow them to control water flow - which would have been unheard of back in those days in Britain.

Above you can see the tank which would have been lead lined.

And thats a close up of some of the plumbing and water ways - well planned and thought out - fantastic engineering for the day.

And the weather was absolutely stunning. We thought the cloud formation above looked a bit like a phoenix - you can see the wings, body and tail !

Although we've been to Housesteads before, we still really enjoyed it. I find it fascinating as it provides a glimpse into the past of Britain that is quite far from what we know. And I will continue to look forward to visiting again in the future - I love the wall and all of the attractions along its length, and one day plan to walk the full length (probably once I retire when I have enough time !).