Lighting Hadrian's Wall

The Guardian reports that the entire length of Hadrian's Wall in England was illuminated this weekend by a series of beacons, celebrating the 1,600th anniversary of the withdrawal of Roman troops from the British Isles.

They came, they saw and they clambered on the ramparts – in numbers not seen on Hadrian's Wall since the Romans called it a day and pulled out their legions 1,600 years ago.

Drawn by the first-ever lighting of the 70-mile monument from end to end, thousands of visitors filled every local car park, lay-by and footpath, while helicopters and a Nasa satellite recorded the necklace of beacons from above.

The airborne had the best overall view, but crowds who shrugged off the chill after sunset and clustered round each flare were rewarded with an awesome sense of the past. Flickering into life on the Whin Sill crags, above the twilit forest and marsh to the north, the 500 lights recreated the ancient border between civilisation and the barbarians.




"It's magnificent," said Matthias Fabian, from Nijwiller in the Netherlands, striding about in the red cloak of a Roman cohort sergeant, plus plumed helmet which made drinking his tea difficult. "How better to get the sense of what life was really like in those far-away days?"

None of the romance was dimmed by the 21st century's inevitable contribution – a far brighter river of car headlights on the sightseer-jammed B6318, the old military road that flanks the frontier. Likewise, the streetlamp glow from the wall's two bookends, Carlisle and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, failed to outshine excitement at beacons on urban fragments of the wall.

"It's just a brilliant idea, literally," said Norma Cooney, as she watched her grandchildren Brad and Brooke play about on what they call "the rocks" - the hundred yards of wall that survive between Denton housing estate and the A186 dual carriageway on the edge of Newcastle.

The effect was most dramatic above the lonely hamlet of Once Brewed, where the wall snakes unbroken, and up to six feet high, past Housesteads fort, Cuddy Crags and Sewingshields farm. The milecastles and turrets, full of people watching as the flares lit in sequence, looked as busy as in 122AD when building began.

There's more at the link. Here's helicopter footage of the torches being set alight along the monument. You can see the sections that are still tall and distinct, with others having subsided until they're almost level with the surrounding countryside.

Congratulations to all concerned on a memorable anniversary achievement.

Peter