Hadrian's Wall

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The reivers had a ready cut source of stone available for building their pele towers and bastles and made full use of robbing out Emperor Hadrian’s world-famous boundary for their own purposes. Even Carlisle Cathedral has grey stone taken from the wall mixed in with the red sandstone of the impressive building.
The Wall runs from Wallsend on Tyneside cutting right through the heart of Northumberland and on to Bowness on Solway in Cumbria. The best-preserved parts of the UNESCO World Heritage site are contained in the Middle March at Chesters and Housesteads Roman Forts and at Corbridge Roman Town.
During the late reiver period an English antiquarian called William Campden complained that he couldn’t visit Housesteads because of the ‘rank robbers thereabouts’ known as the Busy Gap Rogues. A family of Armstrongs were living at Housesteads and continued their reiving ways until as late as 1704 when Nicholas Armstrong was hanged and his family dispersed to America. Visit hadrianswallcountry for more details.

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