Segedunum Roman Fort & Museum — Attraction in North Tyneside

THE END OR BEGINNING ...

Segedunum Roman Fort is perhaps the most disappointing of all the museums along Hadrian's Wall. I say this, because having reached the end of the walk, Wallsend, after starting in Bowness-on-Solway, 8 days before, we were expecting something more.

The tower gives a good view of the River Tyne and also has displays about its ship building history. There is a film showing the rise, decline and building over the Roman Fort site from the year 0 to 2000. That's interesting to watch.

There's an educational Roman history museum on the ground floor, which is obviously aimed at younger children.

However, the "I Walked The Wall" fiberglass sign on the rails on their car park, make any photograph taken there feel cheap and tacky. The wall showing the names of the Centurions who oversaw the building of the Wall could be easily missed. The bathhouse reconstruction over the original floor that was discovered 10 years ago, was closed when we were there in early June.

There is an original part of the Wall and a reconstruction of how it would have been at its 20 foot height and 2 metre width, which you may walk up on to but unless you ask about it, you could easily miss this too, as it's virtually hidden from view when standing in the museum car park.

There is also a mapped out area of the foundations of the Fort you can walk around but being so flat, compared to other forts along the Wall, it just left us feeling, after the week long trek, as flat as the foundations appear. At other forts, walls of buildings are at least a couple of feet high, which makes it easier to understand the scale and image how life was there, circa 200AD.

Even the entrance to the museum isn't obvious, as I observed people wandering around the car park looking at how to get in, and I was asked by two separate visitors how they get in.

The offering ar Segedunum seemed like bits of what a museum should be but a rather disjointed.

Having said that, there's no museum at the other end, Bowness-on-Solway.

This museum isn't part of English Heritage, which owns and manages most of the forts along...

Don't forget to get your first or last (7th) stamp for your Hadrian's Wall Path Passport. Segedunum was a Roman fort at modern-day Wallsend, North Tyneside. The fort lay at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall near the banks of the River Tyne. It was in use for approximately 300 years from around 122 AD to almost 400. Today Segedunum is the most thoroughly excavated fort along Hadrian's Wall, and is operated as Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum. It forms part of the Hadrian's Wall UNESCO World Heritage Site. Half price, only £3.50 per adult, because The museum is a bit rundown , the 3rd floor of the museum was currently closed, as there were buckets everywhere to catch the water, they are having work done on it at the moment, as you can see by the scaffolding up, don't let this put you off as they have moved everything so you still get to see most of the things, and its a great little museum, plus they have the things they found at the site on display, then you can go outside and see where it was found, you could not go in the reconstructed Baths either, the site does take a bit of imagination, but still great to see, and would of been worth the £7. To the right of the site across the road and down a bit (plantation rd) is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 and Wallsend B pit...

This place probably seemed a great idea on paper and the little visitor centre-cum-museum is indeed very nicely presented but it's a little light on information specific to the site and very light on the history of the site as an archaeological endeavour. When we visited there was a good temporary exhibition on the work of unpaid contributors to the work being done. The site itself, however, is somewhat devoid of information having mostly "an X was found here" placards which don't really provide any information on why that might have been interesting or what that suggests. The recently excavated bath house is provided with very little information and, to my taste, has been somewhat over-sanitised. The whole place has the feel of a local regeneration attempt which was not entirely thought through. The panoramic viewing tower which, given the raked seating, was probably supposed to be the centre point of a guided tour of the site was essentially useless without someone providing commentary on the site. What monitors were present were also unreadable in direct sunlight.

In summary, by no means a bad experience, just disappointing when contrasted with the nearby...