Vindolanda Day 10: The Ghost Wall
Posted on May 1, 2024 • 3 minutes • 434 words
This is part of a series
where I document my time volunteering at an archaeological dig in North England in April 2024.
Have a look at some of the other posts to see some of the cool things I got up to.
Today’s dig was rather frustrating. As I mentioned, yesterday
we were looking for the return wall for a third century barracks. We know it must have existed at some point, but it might have been robbed away or excavated previously. I had started a trench yesterday to look for it and had found something perhaps interesting: some sandstone set in clay.
However, the whole area has lumps of clay and sandstone scattered throughout (along with a lot of animal bones, some tiny pieces of pottery and the ever-present charcoal), so by the end of the day we’d demolished most of the earth in the above photo with nothing much to show for it. Even the start of a wall on the far left that looked promising appears to be petering out, though there are some suspicious flat stones a bit lower down. We will have to see tomorrow.
For the duration of the dig, I am staying on-site in the Hedley Centre. There are five rooms (some double) so they sell out very quickly on the dig webpage. However, I don’t have a car or other transport so it was one of the only feasible ways to get here every morning.
The accommodation is decent: each room is en-suite and comes with a fridge to hold your groceries. There is a big kitchen with cutlery, crockery and cooking equipment and a massive lounge/dining area where we have our dinners. There is no phone reception at the centre (its in a small valley) and the landline is a payphone, but the internet is decent, and there is reception if you wander up to the ruin.
I did manage to lock myself out of my room yesterday evening. The doors are fire doors (like many in the United Kingdom) so slam shut behind you. They are locked with Salto locks so if you don’t have the fob on you, you are a bit stuck. Luckily my email to one of the staff members was read and he kindly took time out of his evening to let me back into my room!
I think if I return, I might stay in a hotel in Bardon Mill, though: its very convenient to be on site, but I think the 40 minute walk to Vindolanda is do-able and having breakfast (and dinner) prepared might be worth it.