Day 173-return to Iceland

Banna in Roman times as viewed from the east.

   June 25-We drove up to Hadrian’s Wall and visited the Roman fort of Banna, which is known as Birdoswald today.  The foundations for some of the buildings and most of the walls have been exposed by archaeological excavations, so we got a pretty good feel for the fort.  Alex was confused how the Wall, as she saw it in its ruined state, would deter Picts from invading Roman Britain.  When she learned at the associated museum that Hadrian’s Wall was originally 15 feet high and had manned camps every mile with numerous watchtowers interspersed between them, she understood its role much better!

The remaining ruins of Hadrian's Wall (above) are pretty
meager compared to the Wall in Roman times (right).

   We also discovered in the museum that some of the first archaeological investigations were carried out by a local school teacher named Reginald Bainbrigg.  Since the maiden name of Shan’s maternal grandmother was Bainbridge, maybe Reginald was a distant ancestor of ours.  It was interesting also to learn that the fort (probably and sensibly) transitioned into the headquarters for local chieftains when the Roman legions and administrators left.  Anglo-Saxon chieftains took over later and continued to use it as their base as the Roman works fell into disrepair.  Much of the building material was subsequently scavenged by the Normans, who used it to build their castles in the area while trying to pacify the natives.  However, Birdoswald continued to be occupied throughout this time period as it evolved to become a farmstead.

Joslyn is in the western gateway of the Banna. Foundations of two Roman granaries are behind her. The wooden posts outline the great house that Anglo-Saxon chieftains later built on a granary foundation.

The kids stand in the ruins of the towers at the eastern entrance to Banna.

A legionnaire agreed to have his picture taken with us near the northwestern corner of Banna.

The museum was housed in the medieval era farm buildings. These buildings were built with defensive features, such as arrow slits, since Scottish raiders were pillaging border farms in the 1500s.



   We had dinner and then continued on our way north to Edinburgh.  We drove around downtown for a while, looking at the castle and trying to find a parking place.  Once we succeeded at that, we spent a little time walking around near the entrance to the castle, doing some tourist shopping and viewing the sights.  We had hoped to walk up to the castle.  However, some large amphitheater with metal seats has been built in front of the castle, and only people with tickets were allowed to enter it.

A view of the old part of Edinburgh, near Edinburgh Castle.

Joslyn is happy to be returning to Iceland.

   We drove on out to the airport.  Since our flight was the last departure of the day from the airport, we only had a line at check-in.  After that, we had an unhurried stroll through security and found ourselves with over an hour to spend before our flight boarded.  So, we found a restaurant and had supper and a couple pints of beer before we headed to the gate for our Iceland Express flight back to Iceland.  We took off as the Sun was setting in Edinborough, but it did not set on us for the next few hours as we headed north.

The coast of Scotland as we wing our way north.

   We landed in Keflavík shortly before midnight local time and the Sun was still hanging on the horizon.  By the time we exited the terminal a half hour later, it was below the horizon, but we still did not need to turn on the lights of the car as we drove a whole mile to Hotel Alex, where we spent the night.