Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland.

Hadrian’s Wall was built on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian. At the start of his reign there had been fighting in northern Britain and to strengthen this part of the Roman Empire Hadrian took the decision to build a permanent barrier to create a frontier. He also built fixed frontiers in other parts of the Empire. Hadrian probably gave the order to build the Wall when he visited Britain in AD 122.

It took the Roman legionaries, who built the Wall, about 6 years to complete the job. In Britain there was no convenient river, like the Danube, that could be used as a boundary, so Hadrian’s Wall was built across one of the narrowest parts of the country linking two rivers. When it was finished the Wall was 80 Roman miles long (117km or 73 modern miles) and stretched from Wallsend on the river Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west.

Today some of the best preserved parts of the wall are in the west of Northumberland, these two photographs are at Steel Rigg, looking East towards Crag Lough and Housesteads. 

It is important in landscape photography for the photographer to think about the placement of objects within the picture and the influence that has on the viewer. In these images I have deliberately placed the wall in the bottom left corner of the image, the viewer is then lead through the image by the wall.

Pentax *ist D Sigma 18 - 50mm lens.