Hadrian's Wall is a stone and tuf fortification 117Km long built in 122AD on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian to protect the northern frontier of the Roman Empire from raging barbarians. It stretched from Walls End on the River Tyne in on the east cost of northern England across England to the Solway Firth on the west coast.

Although neither as high nor as tall as the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall is substantially older and remains and impressive sight, particularly where it snakes along bluffs. Some sections have vanished but many sections are well preserved, as are the ground plans of some of the Roman forts spaced along the wall.

It has been know for many years that there was another timber and earth wall north of Hadrian's Wall roughly between present day Edinburgh and Glasgow, that is betwen the Forth and Clyde rivers.  Built about 40 years after Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall as an attempt to push the frontier north.  Ultimately unsuccessful, within a generation the Antonine Wall was abandoned and the frontier re-established on Hadrian's Wall. A later attempt by the Emperor Septimus Severus was even less successful with his attempt lasting a scant few years.

The intention was for the Antonine Wall to be built of stone to match Hadrian's Wall but for the most part the stone and mortar construction was not completed and the wall was mostly constructed as an earth bank.

Evidence is now emerging that immediately north (yards, not miles) of Hardrian's Wall stood an earlier timber wall.  Parallel lines of post holes have been discovered, the only remains of a wall that was probably demolished once the stall wall had been completed section by section.  Archaeoligical analysis by Geoff Carter demonstrates that these post holes were almost certainly the footings of Hadrian's Timber Wall which we can surmise was thrown up quickly before the stone wall was built.  Although temporary, it was still a major construction project in its own right.

The Antonine Wall has been less thoroughly studied and it will be interesting whether in coming years similar post holes and found along the Antonine Wall.  It may be that the construction of the two walls was tackled very differently, but intriguiingly could the Antonine Wall still offer clues as to what Hadrian's Timber Wall might have looked like?