Hadrian's Wall and Jedburgh

This was our longest driving day, and much of it was in winding, narrow roads in The North as we wound our way around Hadrian’s Wall and into Scotland. Ooooh, my tummy did not like that. No matter we had too lovely stops – one along the Wall at the old Roman Chester Fort, and the other in Jedburgh Abbey. Although there was rain along the way (which I did try to use my magic to send south), when we were out of the car the rain stopped. Jedburgh was down-right sunny. This morning has dawned with a beautiful blue sky in Edinburgh – something they haven’t seen in a while.

Hadrian’s Wall was built across Britain, west to east, by the Roman’s to keep the wicked Scot’s out of their “civilized” Britain. At the time the Romans left Britain, the wall stretched across the country and was about 15 feet high. Once the Roman’s left, the locals found the nicely piled stones a convenient supply of good sized square building stones, and over the centuries have simply taken it away to build their own homes and fences. But some parts remain so it is fairly easy to see what it must have been like. We visited the remains of a Roman Fort and the interpretive centre and exposed ruins were excellent.

As most of you know, I was born in a small village in Saskatchewan called Jedburgh. I always knew it was named after a town in Scotland – many of its early settlers were Scots and Brits. Although I don’t know who named the town Jedburgh or why, I always thought it would be cool to visit the one in Scotland. Today I got my wish! I walked the streets of Jedburgh, Scotland. It is the first town north of the border with England, so consequently spent most of its history getting its lights kicked out every time the Brits and Scots went to war. And that was frequent throughout the centuries. The good people just kept rebuilding when the soldiers (both sides) left.

Its main feature is an Augustinian Abbey first founded in 1138 by King David I. For the next four hundred years it was the centre of religious study, prayer and charity – when it wasn’t being trashed by those unruly English on their way to either invade Scotland or punish it for invading England. The Abbey was rebuilt each time it was burned, and really was beautiful. It was burned three times in the 1500s and the Canons finally gave up rebuilding it. Finally, when Henry VIII trashed the Catholic Abbeys in the 1560s the members of the monastery gave up and left for good. However, the people of the town continued to used the abbey as a church until the late 1800s. The town also had a castle and was sometimes home to Mary Queen of Scots – so is quite historic.

Jedburgh is built along Jed Waters and is surrounded by Jed Forest. The country-side around Jedburgh has deep rolling hills, hardwood forests and sheep farms. Quite lovely.