We visited Northumberland in order to spend the week exploring Hadrian's Wall. Our first stop was at Vindolanda Fort.
Vindolanda Fort is a large archaeological site, still being excavated. The original fort predates Hadrian's wall. It is famous for the Vindolanda Tablets, hundreds of thin wooden sheets with fragments of hand written letters, giving an insight into many aspects of Roman life. We saw some on display inside the museum.
HB began by exploring the vicus (the civilian settlement just outside the fort). The buildings we saw included the remains of workshops, the butchers, and a tavern.
Next HB investigated the replica wooden and stone fort. Vindolanda was originally constructed as a wooden fort, then rebuilt in stone.
Then it was time to visit the museum. The lack of oxygen in the soil at Vindolanda has helped preserve many leather and wooden artefacts. The museum displays an enormous number of leather shoes.
An amazing section of the museum displayed some of the wooden finds, including a shovel and a toy sword.
Finally HB explored the remains of the 3rd and 4th century stone fort. The layout became very familiar by the end of our week of fort exploration as each Roman fort followed a similar plan.
One unusual feature was the remains of several stone roundhouses under the fort wall.
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