The Roman's occupied what is now modern England from the middle of the 1st century (43 AD) to the beginning of the 5th century. In 112 AD, the Roman Emporer Hadrian commissioned a 12-15 ft. high by 73 mile long wall to be constructed across the narrowest section of land near the current border of England and Scotland. It took six years to complete.

The wall had a smooth inner and outer layer with the center filled with rubble. It started out to be about 6 ft wide, but was later reduced to about 4 ft. wide. The purpose of the wall was to keep the northern Picts from coming south, and possibly to keep the sourthern (to the wall) Brigantes from going north.

A number of forts and small milecastles (troop barracks) were built along the way to care for the thousand or so troops stationed along the wall. Housesteads is one of the better excavated forts in the area.

Today, most of the wall is less than six feet high and most of it is about four feet high. The bordering land is all pasture land for sheep and goats.