Tantallon House on Hadrian’s Wall

About 10 minutes walk from us is the East Turret 48A. its about 100 yards west of Gilsland Primary School on the west of the village.

The turrets are simple stone watchtowers and were built to a standard plan. The Turrets were built first and had a section of Wall built on each side. The Wall was build later to butt up to these sections, The Romans could use these as defensive watchtowers as the Wall was built.

Interestingly not all of Hadrian’s Wall was built to 3m wide. East of Willowford the Wall is 2m wide on a 3m wide foundation. You can see all of this along the section of Wall to Willowford.

Just downstream from the Roman Bridge at Willowford is an award winning modern steel bridge. This is the first bridge that has crossed the River Irthing at Willowford, and I suppose many miles down stream as well, since Roman Times. People used to cross the river by wading or we have been told by local people, that there was a flying fox type of rope crossing. The Bridge was designed by Napper Architects (a practice based in Newcastle). The design is in steel, gently curved across the river, and beautifully uses the curve of the bridge to cover the difference in height between the banks. The main material is Corten which is a weathering steel. The steel rusts and forms a protective film to stop further rusting. There is no painting and maintenance is minimal.

As this area is sensitive countryside with little access for heavy lorries, the bridge was fabricated in two sections and helicoptered in, (no doubt the local MOD base at Spadeadam helped here as this is only a few miles away and often seems to fly helicopters and jets around us). There must have been some temporary works on the middle of the river to support the bridge while is was bolted up. The hand rails are hardwood(?) with stainless steel cables used for the infill. The deck again would appear to be hardwood as this is unprotected.

Cross bracing can be seen on the underside and it is supported by 2 columns at the “higher” end. Interestingly, when you walk across, you can set the bridge moving as by walking heavily on it, the deck starts to respond. The bridge was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and won a Regional Architectural Award (which I assume was administered by RIBA).

If you go down to the woods today, you are sure of a big surprise as down among the woods, in the Irthing Gorge, just by the Gilsland Spa Hotel is the old swimming pool set by the river. It must have been built at the same time as the spa hotel where you could take a walk from the hotel down to the river and swim in the pool. I guess that all the trees would have been cleared from the area otherwise the midges would have eaten you. But now, it is all abandoned, the trees have grown up around the pool, and bushes are growing in the pool.

As you approach the pool, it is like a surreal picture, it could be something out of a creepy movie - I wonder if it has been used as a film set? The pool is set above the river level, so I was wondering how the water flowed in and out. Just upstream, is what looks like the old pump house, a stone built building with a few abandoned electric motors. I assume this is what pumped the water into the pool as it would be unlikely to fill with water only at the time of the river flowing full blast, it might just reach it.Walking along there today, its a great walk all around the woods, hotel, gorge, and river edges with the water pouring off the rock cliffs.Its about 10 to 15 minutes walk from our B&B.