Hadrian's Wall, England Investigation

Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Hadriani), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Aelium in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Running from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front of it and behind it that crossed the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles, and intervening turrets. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.

Hadrian's Wall Path generally runs very close to the wall. Almost all of the standing masonry of the wall was removed in early modern times and used for local roads and farmhouses. None of it stands to its original height, but modern work has exposed much of the footings, and some segments display a few courses of modern masonry reconstruction. Many of the excavated forts on or near the wall are open to the public, and various nearby museums present its history. The largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain, it runs a total of 73 miles in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The turf-built Antonine Wall in what is now central Scotland, which briefly superseded Hadrian's Wall before being abandoned, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2008.

Hadrian's Wall marked the boundary between Roman Britannia and unconquered Caledonia to the north. The wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border, though it is sometimes loosely or colloquially described as being such

Address: Brampton CA8 7DD, United Kingdom

GPS: 55°01′N 2°17′W

Hauntings: At every mile along the way there was a small fort, a ‘milecastle’, where the soldiers who guarded the Roman Empire resided. Many different accounts of paranormal activity have been reported at these milecastles over the centuries. Milecastle 42 (aka Cawfields Milecastle) is one of these haunted Roman forts. Shocked visitors to the fort ruins have reported seeing an apparition of a man in Roman armor during broad daylight! His specter hovers in the air at the level where Hadrian’s Wall used to reach, about 16 feet high.

The ghost has been seen so many times that a backstory has developed explaining his persistent presence. He is known as Lucius, a sentry at Milecastle 42, who made the mistake of falling for a local Briton girl. The girl’s brother would smuggle goods over Hadrian’s Wall in and out of the Empire. She became close to Lucius for the sole purpose of gaining information to help her brother. When the brother’s intrigues were finally discovered he was captured, and then indicated that Lucius was the sentry who was carelessly leaking information to his lover. Lucius then realized that this girl had been using him and committed suicide, dooming his spirit to roam the area forever.  You can read about the activity at Milecastle 42 in these books: They Still Serve: A Complete Guide to the Military Ghosts of Britain by Richard McKenzie, Ghost Trails of Northumbria by Clive Kristen and Haunted Northumberland by Darren W Ritson.

Milecastle 42 was built by the Second Augustan Legion on a steep south-facing slope south of of Cawfield Crags. It is on a well preserved section of Hadrian’s Wall.

Amateur photographer Stuart Murray was out with friends at night trying to get pictures of the Northern Lights by the Unesco World Heritage Site when this spooky apparition appeared on camera.

The 26-year-old security engineer said: "We had set out because the live data was looking good for a display of the Northern Lights, the stats were good but when we got there it was cloudy.

"I and friends were just chatting taking some test shots and then this figure just appeared on camera."

Stuart said he and his pals initially thought it was a sheep or something which had wondered into the frame but when they ran over there was nothing there. He added: "It was not in any of the other shots, just this one, when we realized there was nothing there which could have popped up like that we got really excited and people started to say it was the ghost of an old Roman soldier.

"I have heard stories about a Roman soldier who has been spotted patrolling the wall, maybe the stories are true - who knows."

The Ghost Research Society investigated Hadrian's Wall, England on June 6, 2023 and the team members included: Paul Adams and  Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Sylvia Shults.

Equipment setup: Olympus digital voice recorder DM-420 and an Android Samsung Galaxy S21 Slim Ultra for pictures.

Experiments performed: One single ordinary EVP session on the wall itself without any real-time devices.

Personal experiences:

Dale Kaczmarek: Nothing out of the ordinary was sensed or felt by me or others in our group during our short visit there. It was pretty windy and I attempted to face the digital recorder towards the wall and away from the wind but there still was some wind contamination. There were some cars on the highway that added to the noise and two couples walking past on the wall walk that greeted me and, I, them.

Evidence collected: None!

Conclusions: This was an amazing location that was steeped in history. It was an absolute thrill to even touch something that dated back to the 2^nd century! If only walls could talk, what could they tell us, the visitor, about what it had witnessed throughout time gone by?

This wall was, for me, another piece of the puzzle from the movie Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson. We also saw Stirling Castle from a distance and Bannockburn where thousands had died for Scotland’s freedom. Earlier I had the opportunity of visiting Westminster Abbey and seeing the vault of Edward I of England (June 17, 1239-July 7, 1307), often called Longshanks due to his high stature and his many wars against Scots. I was able to see almost all of those connections to the movie and English/Scottish history and William Wallace (c.1270-August 23, 1305). We even saw the statue dedicated to Robert the Bruce.

I would have loved to have visited Falkirk and other sites as well. This wall still was just amazing to see and touch and maybe I made a psychic connection between myself and those who built and died around this structure.