Hadrian’s Wall succumbs to foreign tourist invasion
Weak pound blamed after surge in visitors to 2,000-year-old site causes damage to foundations
IT WAS designed to keep out the Barbarian hordes, but nearly 2,000 years after Hadrian’s Wall was erected, the structure is finally falling to foreign invaders.
So many visitors are flocking to the World Heritage Site that the path running alongside it is wearing away, leaving the wall foundations exposed to the elements, and in danger of collapse.
The National Trust, which cares for six miles of the wall, claims the attraction has seen a boost in numbers prompted by the weak pound, which, while encouraging tourism, has speeded up decay.
Yesterday, the Trust flew in 35 tons of stone by helicopter to repair the 250ft section at Caw Gap, a picturesque dip in the undulating fortification which attracts tens of thousands of walkers every year.
Becky Hetherington, the National Trust’s countryside manager, said: “The stones are being used to repair the footpath, and we dig a little pit to lay them in, then use the soil from that to cover over the exposed parts which have been eroded.
“The wear and tear is primarily from foot traffic, as well as wind and rain,” she said. “It’s a slope there, so you get a lot of erosion from people walking up and down which has caused a big trench to appear alongside the wall, exposing the foundations.
“If we don’t repair it now, there is a risk of gully deepening and if the foundations get damaged then the dry stone wall on top of them could start to fall down. We have had more visitors numbers recently, largely because the weak pound means more Britons are staying at home for holidays, while more international visitors are coming. So it’s good that we are doing this now.
“It’s a big job, so hopefully we won’t have to do it too often.”
The original construction of Hadrian’s Wall began in AD122 and the 73mile barrier, which runs from the banks of the River Tyne to the Solway Firth, took just six years to complete.
The wall, which was designed by Emperor Hadrian, marked the northern limit of the Roman Empire. It was peppered with 16 forts and 80 milecastles, whose gates may have acted as customs posts between the Romans, Picts and Ancient Britons.
According to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, Housesteads Fort alone attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year, while a new £14.9 million visitor centre which opened at Once Brewed, near Hexham, in July was expected to bring in a further 100,000 visitors a year.
Only a tenth of the wall now remains after long sections were used for roadbuilding in the 18th century, with much of the stone used in the original B6318 ‘Military Road’ in Northumberland, which was built to move troops to crush the Jacobite rebellion.
In the 1830s, Newcastle town clerk John Clayton bought up some of the land on which the remaining wall stood, including Caw Gap, to prevent farmers from taking stones for their own walls and outbuildings.
The Wall was inscribed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site in 1987. The National Trust cares for the six of miles from Sewing-shields to Cawfields.
An inscription on a 2nd century pan found in 2003 suggests the wall was originally called the vallum Aeli, Aelius being Hadrian’s family name.