illuminating hadrian's wall

What's 84 miles long, 1,888 years old and marked the edge of Roman rule in Britain? Hadrian's Wall of course - and the landmark got a spectacular makeover this weekend with a line of beacons stretching its entirety. The event, named 'Illuminating Hadrian's Wall', marked the 1,600th anniversary of the end of the Roman occupation in Britain, and needed no fewer than 1,100 hardy volunteers to brave the harsh winds of northern England to make it happen.

This Saturday, the light up of Hadrian's wall crated a spectacular line of light from coast to coast. The once in a lifetime event - 'celebrating' (remembering might be more appropriated) the End of Roman Britain in (more or less) AD 410 saw the entire route of the 84 mile long Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail go up in flames lit by flaming torches. Sean and Sam have tweeted us updates from the Illumination, there are tons of great photographs of the Light Up event on Flickr, and Illuminating Hadrian's Wall 2010 has now also released some preliminary, overnight, quickly-edited but still incredibly impressive film footage shot from the helicopter that followed the trail of light. These 30 seconds are definitely worth watching twice... or trice... *hits replay*.

If you didn't make it to the Illumination of Hadrian's Wall (for instance, because you were attending the AD 410 - Then End of Roman Britain conference at the British Museum) you can (after you've read Sean's and Sam's tweet updates live from the light up of the Wall) still marvel at the sight of the Illumination by browsing the images that are one by one (processing takes time) posted to Flickr.

Here's my preliminary Top 10 of Hadrian's Wall Light Up Flickr Images - in no specific order.

On March 13, Hadrian's Wall – all of it – will be lit by gas beacons, a once-in-a-lifetime event called Illuminating Hadrian's Wall. From Wallsend in the east, to Bowness on Solway, approximately 500 beacons spaced every 250 metres will cover the 84 miles of the Hadrian's Wall.

The first beacon will be lit at Wallsend at approximately 5.35pm (sunset is at 6.11pm), and lighting will progress in sequence east to west with a six-second delay between each beacon firing up; 50 minutes later, the last beacon in Bowness should be lit.

Hadrian’s Wall – all 84 miles of it – will be bathed in light for one night only in March.

A spectacular line of light will run along the entire coast-to-coast Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail on Saturday, March 13.

Lights will be placed at 250m intervals along the route – that’s around 500 illuminated spots stretching from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria. The Romans built fortlets, known as milecastles, along the Wall at intervals of one Roman mile. Between each milecastle, and spaced one third of a Roman mile apart, were a series of turrets. The plan is to create a point of light where all the milefortlets and turrets were located, with an additional point of light between each of them. There will also be a number of stewarded points along the wall where people will be able to view the line of light.