Vindolanda
★ In our guides ↓

On Our List

Vindolanda

A remarkable Roman fort and settlement with ongoing excavations, a superb museum of everyday Roman life and genuinely excellent guided tours - allow the best part of a day.

Address:

Hexham, Northumberland, NE47 7JN
Call:
01434 344277

Hours:

Daily: 9:30am - 5:30pm

Map

Good to Know

Vindolanda is a Roman fort and settlement just south of Hadrian's Wall, occupied before the Wall itself was built. It's run by the Vindolanda Trust, an independent charity, and excavation still goes on every summer, so there's always something new coming out of the ground. The museum is famous for the Vindolanda tablets, wooden writing tablets that record everyday life on the frontier, from army paperwork to a birthday invitation from one officer's wife to another.

Why it's on our list: it's one of the most fascinating Roman sites anywhere, and the sheer volume of everyday objects found here, from shoes to combs, makes the people who lived here feel real.

Worth knowing: allow the best part of a day. There's a joint ticket with the Roman Army Museum a few miles west, and if you visit during the excavation season you can watch the diggers at work. Combine it with Housesteads and The Sill for a proper Wall day.

A Little Note From Heather & Sand

We haven't quite made it here ourselves yet, but it's on our list!

We're working our way around Northumberland, personally visiting and reviewing as many of the places featured in our Listed section as we can. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

In the meantime, we do our homework. Before adding somewhere to Heather & Sand, we research it, look at what other visitors have to say and check that it has a good reputation. If the feedback isn't encouraging, it generally doesn't make our list.

Of course, a little online research is no substitute for muddy boots, a decent coffee and seeing somewhere for ourselves. So until we've visited, we'll leave the personal review to one side.

A little about us...

Heather & Sand is our little corner of Northumberland — a collection of places, stories, walks and discoveries from a county we love.

Through our Journal, Guide and Listed pages, we hope to help you discover somewhere new, revisit an old favourite or simply enjoy a little Northumberland from wherever you happen to be.

Tom, Lucy & the Heather & Sand crew.

Featured in our guides