July 31, 2018 - Scotland Trip Day 2 - Hadrian's Wall, Gretna Green, Glasgow, & Inverary
Day 2 included exploring Hadrian's Wall, Gretna Green, a tenement house in Glasgow, and a stay in Inverary (See map below).
Hadrian's Wall
Though Hannah had studied Hadrian's Wall in school right before we left Utah, some of the rest of us (namely, Mark and Heather) did not know much about it. For those who are less informed about it, Wikipedia provides the following:
Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Aelium), also called the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin, was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire, immediately north of which were the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts.
It had a stone base and a stone wall. There were milecastles with two turrets in between. There was a fort about every five Roman miles. From north to south, the wall comprised a ditch, wall, military way and vallum, another ditch with adjoining mounds. It is thought the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.[1]
A significant portion of the wall still stands and can be followed on foot along the adjoining Hadrian's Wall Path. The largest Roman artifact anywhere, it runs a total of 73 miles (117.5 kilometres) in northern England.[2] Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions.[3] It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.[4] In comparison, the Antonine wall, thought by some to be based on Hadrian's wall (the Gillam hypothesis),[5] was not declared a World Heritage site until 2008.[6][7]
It is a common misconception that Hadrian's Wall marks the boundary between England and Scotland. In fact Hadrian's Wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border.[8] While it is less than 0.6 mi (1.0 km) south of the border with Scotland in the west at Bowness-on-Solway, in the east it is as much as 68 miles (109 km) away.
The section of the wall we visited was run by the National Trust and included the ruins of "Housesteads Fort," a permanent encampment of Roman soldiers when the wall was in its prime.
The National Trust site also has a museum that displays numerous Roman artifacts found on site. For some reason, three of us were less impressed by Roman artifacts than we would have been several months ago, but it was still interesting to see.
The ruins included the foundations of homes, stables, businesses, etc. It was fun to explore them in such a beautiful place. Apparently most of the ruins were excavated by one man, a farmer turned amateur archeologist.
Anyone who knows Mark's mom knows that within five minutes of being in a new place she can have a new best friend. It was no different here. She got talking to woman who was walking among the ruins, only to find out that she was a teacher from Norway renting a cottage on-site with her family so that she could learn more about Roman history. Soon they were exchanging contact information, and the woman was inviting Mark's parents for tea (though they declined so we could be on our way). The picture below shows Mark's parents at the door of the woman's cottage.
Gretna Green
For those who have never heard of Gretna Green, here's what Wikipedia has to say about this little tourist town (it is referred to a few times in "Downton Abbey!"):
It has usually been assumed that Gretna's famous "runaway marriages" began in 1754 when Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act came into force in England. Under the Act, if a parent of a minor (i.e., a person under the age of 21) objected to the minor's marriage, the parent could legally veto the union. The Act tightened the requirements for marrying in England and Wales but did not apply in Scotland, where it was possible for boys to marry at 14 and girls at 12 with or without parental consent (see Marriage in Scotland). It was, however, only in the 1770s, with the construction of a toll road passing through the hitherto obscure village of Graitney, that Gretna Green became the first easily reachable village over the Scottish border.
Tenement House - Glasgow
We did not spend too much time in Glasgow, but we did stop to see the Scottish National Trust's (our English National Trust passes worked for Scottish sites too!) Tenement House. The National Trust website says the following:
At first glance, the Tenement House appears to be an ordinary middle-class tenement from the late 19th century, standing in Garnethill. However, when you step inside, the faithfully restored four rooms appear as if frozen in time and provide a rare glimpse into life in Glasgow in the early 20th century.
Shorthand typist Miss Agnes Toward lived here from 1911 until 1965, and preserved her furniture and possessions with love and care. She held on to all sorts of things that most people would have thrown away, and this extensive personal archive has become a valuable time capsule for visitors today. The Tenement House also reveals what it meant to be an ‘independent woman’ at that time.
It was interesting to see how people lived. For example, the picture below shows one of several closets off of major rooms in the house (like the kitchen and living room) that served as a bedroom.
Notice the laundry drying rack near the ceiling in the picture below. It can be raised or lowered using a rope and pulley system.
Inverary
After discovering that several eating establishments in town were closed, we found this restaurant. We had some yummy seafood, but we forgot to take pictures until the food was gone!
Our AirBnB apartment was on the second floor of the all white building on the right. It was one of our favorites of the trip. It had many unique and fun features and was welcoming and homey.
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