Archaeology breakthrough as secret reason Romans never abandoned UK fort explained

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have been stunned for years at the prominence of Vindolanda, the Roman structure that pre-dated Hadrian's Wall, with the reason for its strength revealed by the site's lead researcher.

Hadrian's Wall was built to mark the boundaries of the Roman Empire and to keep the Scots out. It was constructed after the visit of Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD by the Roman army, protected by those who built it, as well as the Roman soldiers who lived in the forts alongside it. The 73-mile wall - stretching from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea - was the furthest frontier of the Roman Empire.

While Hadrian's Wall is one of the more famous legacies left by the Romans, other, perhaps more significant sites, remain sprinkled around the North of England.

Vindolanda sits fairly landlocked in Northumberland, and was once a Roman auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian's Wall.

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