On the lookout for invaders
On Sunday we went to an old Roman fort at Birdoswald. This fort is part of a long wall built in the North of England by a gentleman called Emperor Hadrian about 2000 years ago. Our pedigree certificates don’t go back that far, but my mum says that the dogs who lived here would probably not look much like us and would be more like our wolf ancestors.
With probably the best-preserved defences of any Wall fort, this was an important base for about 1,000 Roman soldiers and their canine friends.
People called Archaeologists have discovered many old things over the past 150 years which belonged to the Romans who lived here. Three of the four main gateways of the fort have been unearthed, as have the outside walls, two granary buildings, workshops and a unique drill hall.
People still lived at Birdoswald after the Romans left. In the 5th century a large timber hall was built over the collapsed Roman granaries, perhaps for a local British chieftain. Later, a medieval tower house was raised here, replaced in the 16th century by a fortified ‘bastle’ farmhouse designed to protect its inhabitants from the notorious ‘Border Reivers‘. Later still in more peaceful times, a farmhouse stood here.
Roman soldier carries the Draco
On the day that we went some humans were dressed as Roman soldiers and with their horses Badger and Steel showed us how the Romans would have defended the fort. They wore vests made from links of chain and strange metal helmets, one also had a metal face.
They showed us how the Roman weapons were used…a strange way to chop cabbage, mum’s way is much less messy!
One of them had a long stick with a dragons head on and a long red tail, the man said it was called a Draco. When the horse charged around the wind made a terrible deep whistling noise through this which Buster did not like at all.
The lady from English heritage said that dogs are very welcome to bring their humans. We are well catered for, with water bowls in the courtyard for us to quench our thirst and places for us to be safely tied up if needed. We were even allowed around the museum, although mum said we had got too wet and dirty on our walk so we missed this bit out.
It was a little strange that my mum had to go through the cafe to put out doggy dirt bags in the courtyard bin, maybe we could have another bin by the gate at the site entrance or near the car park please, there were plenty of people having picnics in the car park so this could be useful for the humans too.
We have put a gallery of our pictures below for you to see.
Bye for now
Buster & Charlie
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- Roman soldier carries the Draco
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- On the lookout for invaders
