drive to the borders

Day Twelve - Drive to Scottish Borders - Vindolanda Roman Fort & Jedburgh Abbey

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\	Hadrian's Wall

VINDOLANDA ROMAN FORT

On the long drive north NE from Keswick, England, to St. Boswells, in the Scottish Borders, we stopped at Vindolanda Roman Fort, shown on the map above as an Outpost Fort, located about a 90 minute drive east of Carlisle.

Vindolanda was a fully-occupied Roman fort by year 80 CE, forty years before Hadrian's Wall construction began. It was a frontier fort, with Iron Age tribes like the Caledonii occasionally attacking from the north, seen by the Romans as aggressive savages.

Hadrian's Wall and it associated forts and milecastles are the furthest north in Europe where Roman Legions were able to maintain a continual presence. Exploratory outposts had been established as far north as Inverness, but were rapidly abandoned, as being too deep into tribal territory, and impossible to keep supplied without incurring a constant loss of military manpower.

The population along Hadrian's wall is estimated to have been, over a 300-year period, between 15,000 and 30,000 in a given year. This included two to three Roman Legions, 5,000 soldiers each, plus their often more numerous attached non-citizen Auxiliary soldiers, and, civilians.

Throughout the Roman Empire, dense civilian populations tended to cluster around Roman forts, usually including the homes of lower-ranked soldiers' wives & family, and there were extensive craft or repair shops, and specialist traders.

In 122, Roman Emperor Hadrian visited the isolated outpost forts, and heard Military leaders complain about being exposed to northern tribal invaders. He had recently been impressed on a tour of Athens, Greece, where the scale of publicly-funded monuments, like the Acropolis, was overwhelming.

He was determined to build something similar, on a grand scale, to be named after him, economically justified as a military necessity & thereby crafting an architectural legacy.

Emperor Hadrian succeeded, because his wall is the largest Roman ruin, anywhere, 73 miles long, from Solway Firth on the west or Atlantic coast, to the River Tyne outlet into the North Sea, near Newcastle, to the east.

note - historic info on this page is from the official Vindolanda brochure, or, from two books I read after the trip (see Bibliography page).

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.

		miles from Rome		first look		not a small fort
	bath house foundations		not w/o some luxury		main buildings
the tavern		tavern, see note below				'on Broadway'
	heading to the cafe & museum		somewhat downhill		Chesterholm Museum & Cafe
Vindolanda artifacts		Samian pottery from south Gaul (broken upon arrival)		weapons		Roman coins
	in good condition		himself		you could read letters written at the fort
outside again		< altars & their religious inscriptions >				1/10 second handheld shot
	goodbye to Vindolanda		Linda Carol & Linda Carol

note about the tavern - the official brochure states that if you walked into Vindolanda Tavern 1,800 years ago, you could have ordered a local grain-based ale, or a white or red wine of decent quality, shipped in from the (later to be named) Bordeaux region in France.

Supposedly 'early Britons' established a sometimes trade of 'English' wool for 'Gaulish' wine. Once the Romans arrived, wine aficionados, they recognized a good thing & lent their expertise in shipping to enhance this profitable commodity-trading scheme. Wines back then (100 to 400 ce) came in barrels, not in skins or amphorae.

Speaking of economics, the forts along Hadrian's Wall were supplied by a well-established, if sometimes slow, international trading network, which radiated out for hundreds or even thousands of miles. The Wall forts drew in merchants from Eboracum (York) and Londinium for clothing and other basic goods.

Specialty culinary necessities like olive oil, fish sauce, garlic, or figs often came from Iberia (early Spain), or sometime from as far away as the Levant. Within the Roman Empire, commodity trading touched every corner, and Roman coins were the currency of the day.

According to the brochure, Vindolanda turned out to be "one of the most yielding" of Roman artifacts of any Roman fort associated with Hadrian's Wall, which is why the Chesterholm Museum here is extensive. All of us were captivated by the collection of artifacts.

The attractive & popular cafe had a lot to offer and provided us with a good break from the long drive.

Below are photos from the web of Hadrian's Wall...

in good condition

a well-trod footpath to the left

a walker on the left side path

idealized & cartoonish

Afterwards, we drove north for two hours, crossing into Scotland. The border crossing is at a high pint in the Cheviot Hills and a ferocious wind was blowing, non-stop.

Soon we were at the ruins of Jedburgh Abbey, which we just missed being able to see. Many historic sites in England are open until 4 pm but visitors aren't allowed in after 3:15 pm, so we had to resort to photos taken from street level, as close as we could get.

	crossing the border in the Cheviot Hills		a photo of ferocious wind		River Jed
		Jedburgh Abbey		near sunset

Jedburgh Abbey was founded in 1136 as a Cistercian Monastery, with close ties to the larger Cistercian community at Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, in Yorkshire, England. Jedburgh, Scotland, is 130 miles NE of Rievaulx, as the crow flies.

SCOTTISH BORDERS

Melrose is in southeast Scotland

Scottish Borders, look for River Tweed

Sir Walter Scott wrote that Melrose and Kelso had the 'most romantic' scenery in England. Both are small old world country towns with impressive Abbey ruins. And, the Tweed is a beautiful river, on its long path east to the sea.

Melrose is a tiny town (web photo)

We arrived at the Dryburgh Arms Pub w/Rooms in St. Boswells on a Friday, around 4 pm. After an hour's rest we drove two miles to Melrose, where we had dinner at Marmion's Brasserie.

go to next page - Scottish Borders - Dryburgh Abbey, Abbottsford (Sir Walter Scott), & Melrose Abbey

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