Steel Rigg is one of the most photogenic areas of the British landscape. The dramatic sky and rolling hills form the back drop for Hadrian's Wall and home of Housesteads one of the largest Roman remains and significant Roman fort on the Wall. My interest to visit this location, however, was to visit the tree made famous in the film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. The tree is a beautiful Sycamore and of course in true British use of language it sits in what is known as Sycamore Gap on the Steel Rigg crags.
Roman Blockwork
Looking South into England
Housesteads is the best-known fort on Hadrian's Wall, and is one of the most iconic sites of the Roman Empire. Perched high on its ridge, the remains convey the spirit of the past as well as the beauty of the present. Along with Chesters, it was one of the permanent forts added to the Wall around AD 124, as part of a second plan for the new frontier. Known to the Romans as 'Vercovicium', 'the place of effective fighters', Housesteads was garrisoned by around 1,000 infantry (generally Tungrians from what is now Belgium), later reinforced by Germanic cavalry.
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