Before Rome: prehistoric and Iron Age activity in Hadrian's Wall

The land later crossed by Hadrian’s Wall was occupied and used long before Rome arrived. Prehistoric settlement, field systems and burial monuments are known in the wider region, while later Iron Age sites existed along the wider route of the future frontier. These remains show that the Roman installation was imposed on an already used landscape rather than built across empty country.

The evidence does not show that the later wall followed a precise pre-Roman political boundary. It is therefore unsafe to describe the frontier as a line that simply reproduced an ancient border between named peoples. The route may have been influenced by geography and existing movement through the region, but the surviving evidence does not establish one pre-Roman explanation for every section.

“Iron Age” covers a long period before the Roman conquest, rather than one single episode. The sites along the wider route belonged to communities whose buildings, fields, burial places and routes have not survived evenly. Some traces were later covered, disturbed or incorporated into the Roman landscape. Others are known from archaeology without producing ruins that visitors can identify on the ground.

Rome’s conquest of Britain began under the emperor Claudius in 43 CE. Roman military activity later extended into what is now Scotland during Agricola’s campaigns in the late first century. Before the wall was built, forts and roads had already shaped the region: Corbridge and Vindolanda pre-dated the stone wall, and Vindolanda was a major fort and settlement on the Stanegate road before and during its construction.

That sequence matters. Hadrian’s frontier did not appear as Rome’s first intervention in northern Britain. Earlier military bases and roads formed part of the setting in which the later installation developed. When Hadrian visited Britain in 122 CE, the decision was made to reorganise the northern frontier. Construction probably began in or shortly after 122 CE and progressed in sections; the principal line was substantially complete by about 128 CE.

The result was more than a single barrier. The frontier included a wall, milecastles, turrets, forts, the Vallum, roads, bridges, military settlements, supply bases and civil settlements. The earlier landscape was not erased in one operation. It became the ground on which a military and administrative zone was built, with Roman routes and forts controlling a region that already had its own history of occupation and movement.

For a wider orientation before choosing individual sites, see the Hadrian’s Wall destination guide. The transition from pre-Roman landscape to Roman frontier is best understood as a process, not a single moment in 122 CE.

Very little of the prehistoric and Iron Age activity along Hadrian’s Wall survives as an obvious monument labelled for visitors. The evidence is uneven, and much of it is known from archaeological investigation rather than from structures standing above ground. You should therefore expect to see the later Roman frontier more clearly than the earlier occupation it replaced or absorbed.

The wider region contains evidence for prehistoric settlement, field systems and burial monuments. These categories point to repeated use of the land, but they do not automatically identify a particular building, community or date at every place along the modern walking route. Later Iron Age sites are also known along the wider route of the future frontier. Their distribution helps establish that activity existed before Rome, while the absence of visible remains at a particular viewpoint does not mean that the area was unused.

The Roman remains provide the clearest physical framework for reading this earlier landscape. Hadrian’s Wall ran approximately 117 kilometres from Wallsend on the River Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway on the Solway Firth. Its route crossed different terrain and connected forts, roads and crossings. At Vindolanda, south of the wall near modern Bardon Mill, successive timber and stone forts were built from the late first century onwards, before and during construction of the frontier. The site is consequently one of the most useful places for understanding the military setting that preceded and accompanied the wall.

At Wallsend, Segedunum was built as part of the Hadrianic frontier. Excavated remains include the fort plan, headquarters building, barracks, granaries, commanding officer’s house and bathhouse, although these are Roman remains rather than prehistoric or Iron Age structures. At Chesters, the fort of ancient Cilurnum guarded the bridge over the North Tyne. These places show why the route mattered to Rome, but they should not be mistaken for surviving evidence of a pre-Roman boundary.

The Vallum is another major feature to look for, although its exact function and chronology remain debated. It is a broad ditch with banks south of much of the wall and belongs to the Roman frontier system. A surviving section is preserved at Benwell. Its presence helps you see how extensively Rome reorganised the land, but it does not mark a known Iron Age frontier.

At Housesteads, one of Britain’s best-preserved Roman military sites, the surviving headquarters, granaries, barracks, commanding officer’s house, hospital and latrines belong to the Roman occupation. They are valuable points of comparison: the visible masonry represents a later, more formal military landscape, while the pre-Roman activity is usually less legible. The self-guided tours of Hadrian’s Wall can help combine these visible Roman sites with the wider route and landscape.

Some masonry visible along the wall also reflects nineteenth-century reconstruction after John Clayton’s conservation work. That reminder is useful here: what you see today is not a simple untouched record of one period, and the earlier landscape is even less likely to appear as a complete, readable layer.

No named prehistoric or Iron Age individual is securely attached to the activity described along the route. The evidence is mainly archaeological: settlements, field systems, burial monuments and later Iron Age sites. It can show that communities occupied and used the landscape, but it does not provide a written list of their names or a complete account of their political organisation.

The first named figures connected with the later transformation of the area belong to the Roman period. Claudius was the emperor under whom the Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 CE. Agricola’s campaigns in the late first century extended Roman military activity into what is now Scotland. These events placed the region within a changing Roman military context, but neither figure can be treated as a known participant in the earlier prehistoric or Iron Age activity.

Hadrian visited Britain in 122 CE, during the reign in which construction of the frontier probably began. A late source, the Historia Augusta, states that he ordered a wall to separate Romans from “barbarians”, but that source must be used cautiously. The statement does not identify the people who had used the landscape before Rome, and it does not prove that the wall followed a pre-Roman political boundary.

At the practical level, the frontier was built by detachments from the legions II Augusta, VI Victrix and XX Valeria Victrix, alongside auxiliary units. Building inscriptions identify particular military units in particular sectors, but they do not provide a complete chronology of construction. These named Roman formations belong to the building of the frontier, not to the earlier communities whose fields, settlements and burial places occupied the region.

Vindolanda provides a further human connection with the transition into the Roman period. It was a major fort and settlement on the Stanegate road before and during construction of Hadrian’s Wall, and several successive timber and stone forts were built there from the late first century onwards. Its writing tablets preserve letters, lists and military records. Those documents illuminate Roman administration and military life, but they do not supply the names of the prehistoric or Iron Age inhabitants who lived along the wider route.

The distinction is important when interpreting the landscape. Rome left inscriptions and written records; the earlier communities are known largely through physical traces. Their anonymity is an evidential limit, not evidence that they lacked organised lives or relationships with the land. For the people who later investigated and preserved the Roman remains, the pages on Eric Birley’s connections with Hadrian’s Wall and John Clayton’s connections with Hadrian’s Wall provide a later chapter in the site’s history, rather than evidence for the pre-Roman period itself.

The evidence supports a picture of people using the region for settlement, cultivation and burial before Rome, but it does not permit a detailed reconstruction of daily life at every point along the wall. Prehistoric field systems show that land was organised and worked. Settlement evidence indicates occupation. Burial monuments show that some places were given a lasting commemorative role. Later Iron Age sites add another phase of activity before the Roman frontier.

Those facts are more secure than assumptions about a standard house, diet or language. The surviving information does not identify the layout of every pre-Roman settlement, name the crops grown in each field system, or provide a complete menu. Nor does it establish one uniform way of life across the whole route. The future frontier crossed different landscapes, and activity known in the wider region should not be assigned automatically to each Roman fort or modern viewpoint.

Housing is therefore best approached cautiously. The presence of settlement proves occupation, but not one particular building form at every site. The same applies to work: field systems show organised use of land, while the wider archaeological record does not, by itself, tell us how every household divided labour or how far people travelled to exchange goods.

Burial monuments offer firmer evidence for treatment of the dead. They show that some locations had a commemorative or ceremonial significance before the Roman occupation. Their presence does not reveal the names of the people buried there, the exact beliefs held by their communities, or a single religious system shared across the region.

Language is another area where restraint matters. No named prehistoric or Iron Age individuals, texts or speech communities are securely supplied for the route. It is not possible to assign one language to all the people who used this landscape. Roman written evidence appears later, and the writing tablets from Vindolanda preserve Roman letters, lists and military records rather than pre-Roman voices.

The clearest change came with Roman military intervention. Before the wall, Corbridge and Vindolanda already belonged to an expanding network of forts and roads; Vindolanda was a major fort and settlement on the Stanegate. After Hadrian’s reorganisation, the frontier included forts, milecastles, turrets, roads, bridges, supply bases, military settlements and civil settlements. That created new patterns of movement and administration, but it did not turn the earlier landscape into an empty space.

When you visit, separate what the ground proves from what it merely allows you to ask. A bank, mound or patch of uneven ground may belong to a much earlier phase, but without secure identification it should not be labelled prehistoric or Iron Age. The wider landscape is evidence of long use; individual traces require careful interpretation.

Begin at the eastern end of the frontier at Wallsend, where the later Roman installation can be read through Segedunum’s excavated fort plan, headquarters, barracks, granaries, commanding officer’s house and bathhouse. These remains do not belong to the prehistoric or Iron Age period, but they establish the Roman layer that later covered a landscape already used by earlier communities.

Continue west through the route rather than looking for one surviving “pre-Roman wall”. The frontier ran from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway, and the earlier evidence is distributed unevenly along the wider region. At each stop, ask what is visible, what is inferred from archaeology, and which features are Roman additions.

Vindolanda is particularly useful for the transition. It lies south of Hadrian’s Wall near modern Bardon Mill and was a major fort and settlement on the Stanegate before and during the wall’s construction. Several timber and stone forts were built there from the late first century onwards. The visible remains and the writing tablets belong to the Roman story, but the site helps explain how military occupation had already developed before the principal line was built.

In the central section, compare the open route with Housesteads. Its headquarters, granaries, barracks, commanding officer’s house, hospital and latrines make the Roman organisation unusually legible. At Benwell, look for the surviving section of Vallum south of the wall. It is a later frontier earthwork, not a known prehistoric boundary, and its exact function and chronology remain debated.

Finish at Bowness-on-Solway if you are following the full line. The wall itself ran for approximately 117 kilometres, while the Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail is about 135 kilometres because it follows a walking route rather than every metre of the Roman barrier. Allow for uneven terrain and changing access, and check the details of your chosen itinerary before setting out.