Illuminating Hadrian's Wall

Illuminating Hadrian's Wall will be a spectacular line of light from coast to coast, along the length of Hadrian's Wall, in 2010.

This once in a lifetime event will take place on Saturday 13th March 2010 and will follow the route of the 84 mile long Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail. There will be around 500 individual points of light, placed at 250 metre intervals. The first one will be illuminated at Wallsend in the North East, with the line of light then making its way along the Wall to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria over the following hour.

The Romans built fortlets, known as milecastles, along the Wall at intervals of one Roman mile. Between each milecastle, and spaced one third of a Roman mile apart, were a series of turrets. The plan is to create a point of light where all the milefortlets and turrets were located, with an additional point of light between each of them.

A camera crew will film the line of light as it makes its way from coast to coast from a helicopter and the pictures will be beamed to giant screens as part of two major events in the north east and at Carlisle to celebrate the illumination of Hadrian's Wall. There will also be a number of stewarded points along the Wall where people will be able to view the line of light.

More information about Illuminating Hadrian's Wall and the events in north east and Carlisle will be available on the website very soon. You can also keep up to date with Illuminating Hadrian's Wall on Facebook or follow @EmperorHadrian on Twitter.

Illuminating Hadrian's Wall is an ambitious project led by Hadrian's Wall Heritage Ltd which forms part of the world-class programme of festivals and events developed by culture10 in the North East of England and the Lakes Alive programme in Cumbria presented by Kendal Arts International and Manchester International Arts. Illuminating Hadrian's Wall is also a flagship event of British Tourism Week 2010.

Remarkable Dorset Coinicidences

Our sons five and seven year old daughters were with us in Dorset over the October half term. We walked the Jurassic Coast as always but this time added a visit to the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester. During a quiet time at home, the five year old drew entirely unaided and without prompting a beautiful double spiral divided into segments, exactly like an ammonite, but with one important difference; she added the head of a snake. I had recently read Tracy Chevaliers new novel Remarkable Creatures which, factually based, tells the story of the famous 19th Century fossil finder and seller Mary Anning from Lyme Regis. The book reveals the lack of understanding of fossils in the 19th Century: when Lyme Regis locals were asked what ammonites were they always replied "coiled snakes"!

The older grand-daughter returned to Glasgow with a piece of an ammonite found on the beach. She took it to school for "Show and Tell" describing how it was found and what it was. This happened to be the day that a previously unknown fossil creature found near Lyme Regis was announced in the press. The teacher had already decided to discuss fossil finds based on the giant 140 million year old plesiosaur and it followed neatly on from the tiny piece of ammonite.