Scotland England and the Wall: The Elephant House Cafe

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Elephant House Cafe

We had lunch today and the Elephant House Cafe. It is a lovely space with very high ceilings and huge south facing windows. It is full of University of Edinburgh students working away on projects. They seem very tolerant and don't seem to hurry anyone along.

The claim is the J. R. Rowling worked on her first drafts of her Harry Potter series in that same sun lit room with her daughter asleep in the chair beside her.

It is a great spot to chill out for a while and it has a great view of the castle. It is on the George IV Bridge which is quite something onto it's self. The street runs north/south and the east/west streets and is about five stories above the east/west streets. So what seems to be the ground floor in the photos is actually the fifth floor.

I think you have to see it to understand it.

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Hadrian's Wall Background

Hadrian's Wall was built following a visit by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD. He was quite concerned about raiders from the north. The Roman's were experiencing military difficulties in Britain and he was eager to impose order. He also most likely saw the building of such an impressive wall as a symbol of Roman power in occupied Britain. It was constructed to keep Roman Britain safe from hostile attacks from the Picts. It took somewhere between four to six years to complete.

It was the northernmost boundary of the Roman Empire at that time. The wall stretches from Newcastle, Wallsend-on-Tyne in the east to Bowness on the Solway Firth in the west.

The wall was 73 miles or 117 kilometres long, about 8 to10 feet wide, and 15 feet high. In addition to the wall, the Romans built a system of small forts called milecastles which housed by 60 men every Roman mile along its entire length, with smaller towers every 1/3 mile. Sixteen larger forts holding from 500 to 1000 troops were built into the wall, with large gates on the north face. To the south of the wall the Romans dug a wide ditch called a vallum with six foot high earth banks.

The width and height of Hadrian's Wall was dependent on whatever construction materials which were available nearby. East of River Irthing the wall was made from squared stone and measured 3 metres (9.7 ft) wide and five to six metres (16–20 ft) high, while west of the river the wall was made from turf and measured 6 metres (20 ft) wide and 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) high. This does not include the wall's ditches, berms and forts. The central section measured eight Roman feet wide (7.8 ft or 2.4 m) on a 10-foot (3.0 m) base. Some parts of this section of the wall survive to a height of 7 or 8 feet