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Conferences and events
THE XXIST INTERNATIONAL LIMES (ROMAN FRONTIERS) CONGRESS AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, 2009
Pre-Congress excursion
There will be an optional pre-Congress excursion to York (Roman legionary fortress and colonia; Minster (cathedral) and superbly preserved medieval town). This will be a day excursion on Sunday 16 August leaving from Newcastle at around 08.30 and returning at around 22.00. There will be a guided tour of the remains and outline of the fortress and a lunchtime reception at the Yorkshire Museum, with free time and an opportunity to visit the Minster in the afternoon. Dinner will provided en route on the way back.
The cost of the pre-congress excursion will be approximately £75.00 sterling
Excursions during the Congress
There will be three full-day excursions during the Congress. These will concentrate on Roman military sites north and south of Hadrian’s Wall. Lunches will be provided and evening meals on two of the three days. The cost of these three excursions is included in the Congress fee.
Excursion 1, Tuesday 18 August
Roman Forts in County Durham and the Pennines
The journey will start and end in Newcatle and involve visits to:
· Binchester (fort with well-preserved fourth-century
baths)
· Piercebridge (large fort, legionary detachment
base, remains of Roman bridge, excavations recently published)
A drive across the Pennines via the Stainmore pass to:
· Whitley Castle: superbly preserved Roman fort in remote lead-mining
area
Return to Newcastle in time for evening meal (not provided).
Excursion 2, Thursday 20 August
Roman military sites in Yorkshire
The day will start and end in Newcastle, and visits will be made to:
· Malton (Roman fort and vicus and important museum)
· Scarborough (site of late-fourth century Roman signal station set within a spectacular medieval castle). There will be a lunchtime reception at this site
· Cawthorn (complex of well preserved forts and marching camps
on the remote North Yorkshire moors)
Dinner on the way back to Newcastle.
Excursion 3, Saturday 22 August
The coaches will drive north up Dere street, the main Roman road into Scotland, for visits to:
· Risingham: very well preserved Roman fort near West Woodburn
· Swine Hill: well-preserved marching camp on Dere Street
· High Rochester: the northernmost known outpost fort of Hadrian’s
Wall after AD 180; extensive remains are visible, as well as one of the
most extensive surviving Roman cemeteries on the northern frontier.
A return will then be made to the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall to visit the Tyneside forts at:
· Wallsend (extensive remains, reconstructions, museum, recently published excavations)
· South Shields (extensive remains, reconstructions, museum, recently published excavations); and evening reception and meal will take place at South Shields before the delegates are returned to Newcastle.
Limited opportunity optional excursion to Roman sites in the Lake
District
it is hoped to run a limited-opportunity alternative to the Yorkshire excursion on Thursday 20 August. Three minibuses would take a maximum of 45 on a special day-excursion to the Lake District to visit the sites of Hardknott Castle (Hadrianic fort, baths and parade ground in remote spectacular setting), Ambleside (Roman fort on Lake Windermere) and Ravenglass (Walls Castle baths partly preserved to roof-height). Places would be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. A specialist guide would accompany this excursion.
This excursion will involve special arrangements and regrettably an additional fee of £35.00 sterling will have to be charged to participating delegates.
Post-Congress excursions
Those wishing to join a post-congress excursion will have the choice
of two optional post-congress excursions, run simultaneously.
For delegates who wish to visit Hadrian’s Wall and who have not been able to attend the Pilgrimage, there will be a three-day tour of the principal sites of Hadrian’s Wall. The alternative will be a three-day excursion to the Antonine Wall and other sites in Roman Scotland.
Post-Congress option 1: Hadrian's Wall
The Hadrian’s Wall excursion will set out from Newcastle and return
to Newcastle on each of its 3 days (Monday 24 August, Tuesday 25 August,
Wednesday 26 August). Delegates wishing to join this excursion must arrange
to extend their accommodation arrangements in Newcastle after the closing
session of the Congress on Sunday 23 August. The Hadrian’s Wall
post-Congress excursion will end on the evening of Wednesday 26 August
when the coaches arrive back in Newcastle at around 20.30.
Over the three days the principal Hadrian’s Wall sites will be
visited as follows:
Monday: Corbridge, Chesters fort and bridge, Brunton (Turret 26B),
Carrawburgh fort and Mithraic temple
Tuesday: Housesteads, wall-curtain between Housesteads and Steel
Rigg, including milecastles 37, 38 and 39, Vindolanda, Milecastle 42 and
Haltwhistle Burn
Wednesday: Birdoswald, Turf Wall sector, Carlisle, Bowness on
Solway
Delegates will be issued with a copy of a Handbook summarising research on Hadrian’s Wall in the period 1999-2009.
Lunches will be provided but delegates will be responsible for their
own evening meals and accommodation in Newcastle.
The cost of the post-congress excursion to Hadrian’s Wall will be approximately £80.00 sterling; delegates should remember to take into account their accommodation costs each evening.
Post-Congress option 2: The Antonine Wall and Roman Scotland
This excursion will set out from Newcastle early on the morning of Monday
24 August. Two nights will be spent in Scotland, at a university hall
of residence at Stirling. This accommodation will be booked by the organisers
but is at participants’ own expense. Lunches and evening meals are
provided.
Monday 24 August will be spent visiting the National Museum in
Edinburgh and the Antonine Wall at Watling Lodge, Falkirk, and Rough Castle.
Tuesday 25 August will be devoted to the Antonine Wall with visits
to Seabegs Wood, Bar Hill, Croy Hill, Bearsden and an evening reception
at the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow University.
Wednesday 26 August the excursion heads north to the magnificently
preserved fort of Ardoch, the towers of the Flavian ‘Gask frontier’,
and finally the site of Inchtuthil, the most northerly legionary fortress
in the Roman empire. The coaches will arrive back in Newcastle late on
the evening of 26 August.
The cost of the post-congress excursion to the Antonine Wall and Roman Scotland will be approximately £195.00 sterling, including all accommodation and meal costs.
The Thirteenth Pilgrimage of Hadrian’s Wall
The Pilgrimage of Hadrian’s Wall will take place in the week preceding the Congress. It will begin at Carlisle on Saturday 8th August and end at Newcastle upon Tyne on the evening of Friday 14th August. The first Pilgrimage was undertaken by a small band of antiquaries in 1849. Its successors now continue at ten-yearly intervals and are organised by the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Many attending the Congress might also wish to join the Pilgrimage.
Members of the organising societies have priority booking for the Pilgrimage
during the period from late June until 31st July 2008. From 1st August
to 30th September 2008 priority booking will be extended to include those
attending the Congress. From the beginning of October booking will be
open to all.
It is emphasised that the number of places on the Pilgrimage
is strictly limited. If you wish to take part, you are advised to book
as early as possible after 1st August 2008, or you may not be able to
secure a place.
The fee for attending the Pilgrimage is likely to be in the region of
£250. The costs of accommodation and evening meals will be additional
to the fee (at present these costs are estimated at about £290).
A deposit of £100 will be payable at the time of booking.
The organisation of the Pilgrimage is entirely separate from that of the Limes Congress. Information is given here for the convenience of delegates to the Congress who may also wish to join the Pilgrimage. The contact details of those who have already expressed interest in both the Congress and the Pilgrimage have been passed onto the Pilgrimage Organising Committee who will send fuller details of the Pilgrimage to those contacts in due course. Further details will also appear on the websites of the organising societies: www.cwaas.org.uk or www.newcastle-antiquaries.org.uk. Alternatively you can contact Ian Caruana, the member of the Pilgrimage Organising Committee who is coordinating the bookings: telephone 0044-1228-544120; e-mail elizabethallnutt@btinternet.com