Plan your visit to Vindolanda Roman Fort with North East Escapes. See active digs and the famous Vindolanda Tablets, and find nearby holiday homes. |
Visit Vindolanda, Where Roman Britain Comes Vividly to Life
Vindolanda is one of the most extraordinary archaeological sites in Britain, a Roman fort just south of Hadrian's Wall where excavations have been taking place continuously since the 1970s, yielding finds of international significance year after year. Unlike many Roman sites where only foundations remain, at Vindolanda you can walk through reconstructed Roman buildings, watch live archaeological digs in progress, and handle or closely view some of the most remarkable Roman artefacts ever found in the country. It is a place of genuine discovery and excitement, and one of the best places in the world to understand what life was really like in Roman Britain.
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort occupied continuously from around 85 AD until the end of Roman rule in Britain in the fifth century. Nine successive forts were built on the same site over this period, each partially demolishing and burying the one before, which is why the archaeological record here is so extraordinarily rich. The site's most famous finds are the Vindolanda Tablets, thin slivers of wood on which soldiers and civilians inscribed letters, lists and records in ink, preserved in the anaerobic conditions beneath the site for 2,000 years. These tablets, now in the British Museum, are the oldest surviving handwritten documents from Britain, and they offer an astonishing window into everyday Roman life, from birthday party invitations to requests for more socks and underpants from home.
The on-site museum is one of the finest small Roman museums in the country, with a vast collection of leather goods, wooden objects, textiles, writing tablets and personal artefacts that survive nowhere else in the Roman world outside of very specific waterlogged conditions. The excavations themselves are open to view daily during the summer season, with the possibility of watching archaeologists at work in the trenches. Several reconstructed Roman buildings including a temple and a section of Hadrian's Wall provide visual context for the fort's history. The wider site includes the remains of a civilian settlement, a Roman road and the fort's bathhouse. The adjacent Roman Army Museum at Carvoran provides complementary material on the military context of the Wall.
Vindolanda is located near Bardon Mill, Northumberland, NE47 7JN, signposted from the B6318 Military Road and accessible from the village of Twice Brewed. The site is open daily from February through to November, with reduced winter opening. Joint tickets with the Roman Army Museum at Carvoran offer good value for visitors spending a full day on the Wall. Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail passes close by, making Vindolanda a natural stop on any longer Wall walk. The nearest town is Haltwhistle to the west.
North East Escapes offers a selection of holiday homes near Vindolanda and the Hadrian's Wall corridor, perfect for those wanting to explore the Roman frontier in depth. Staying in the South Tyne Valley puts you within easy reach of Vindolanda, Housesteads, Chesters Fort, Birdoswald and the spectacular Wall scenery along the Whin Sill, as well as the Northumberland National Park, Kielder Forest and the wider landscapes of the North Pennines. Our Hadrian's Wall holiday homes are ideal for history enthusiasts, walkers and families discovering one of Britain's most remarkable ancient monuments.
