This long weekend course is devoted to Britain’s most outstanding Roman monument: Hadrian’s Wall. A World Heritage Site, Hadrian’s formidable engineering achievement spans over 70 miles of beautiful, often rugged, countryside. We will explore the forts, turrets and castles that line the wall as we examine how the Roman army and local tribes lived, worked and died on the empire’s northern-most frontier.

Chesters, built to protect the passage of Hadrian’s Wall over the River Tyne, is Britain’s most impressive Roman cavalry fort, whilst Housesteads, perched high on a ridge overlooking wide expanses of Northumbrian moorland, is adorned with extensive barracks, granaries and a hospital.

The garrison and civilian settlement at Vindolanda, where the eponymous wooden writing tablets were unearthed, is situated beside one of the best preserved sections of Hadrian’s Wall.

Our tour will end with a specially arranged visit to the 7th century crypt at Hexham Abbey, constructed entirely out of Roman masonry.

We stay in the heart of rural Northumberland at the three-star George Hotel in Chollerford, a riverside country-house hotel just a five minute stroll from Hadrian’s Wall.