Housesteads Roman Fort

The stones are still there, two thousand years on. Housesteads Roman Fort sits on a ridge above the South Tyne Valley with a view that makes you understand why the Romans planted themselves here - they could see trouble coming from miles away. You walk through the gate and suddenly you're standing in the footprint of a proper military installation: barracks, a commandant's house, storage rooms, a hospital. The stonework is fragmentary but substantial enough that you can read the layout like a blueprint.

This isn't a reconstructed theme park. There's no animatronic centurion telling you jokes. What you get instead is the real archaeology - walls chest-high in places, hypocausts (underfloor heating) that still make sense when you peer down into them, inscriptions that speak directly across the centuries. Plan for two hours minimum, longer if you're the type to read every interpretation board and sit on the grass thinking about garrison life on the Wall.

It works brilliantly as part of a Hadrian's Wall walk, or just as a half-day stop when you're based near Hexham. Families with teenagers will get more from it than younger kids - the abstraction requires some imagination. History types will spend a whole afternoon here. The wind can be fierce at this elevation, so dress for it.

Several decent campsites cluster within five miles - Hadrian's Wall Campsite, Stonehaugh, and Herding Hill Farm are your closest bets. Bring binoculars if you're interested in the landscape archaeology; the Wall itself runs right past the fort.