N June my husband, three children and I headed from our home in Glasgow to "the South" - that is, England - for the weekend. The lure was Hadrian's Wall: nearly 73 miles long, coast to coast, sometimes visible, sometimes long gone, built by the Roman emperor Hadrian in about A.D. 122 to 128 to keep the northern barbarous tribes out of Roman Britain or, at the very least, to tax them for the right to enter it. Today, the adventurous can walk the entire length of the wall on Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail - made up of paved road, gravel pathways, grassy and turf rights of way and new metal bridges. The path opened in May to much fanfare, and to the tune of about $9.5 million.

For nearly 300 years the wall defined the northernmost border of civilization in the British Isles, and was manned by Roman auxiliary troops, who had signed up for the typical 25-year tour of duty. It was no ordinary wall, either, but a masterpiece of engineering and design, some 15 feet high and 8 feet thick, involving 27 million cubic feet of stone and rolling through open moorland, wind-swept fields, craggy hills and dense forests, with milecastles (lookout towers) marking every Roman mile, as well as minicastles, major fortresses, miniforts, turrets and bridges.

In short, the wall wasn't just a border. It was a whole civilization, an entire community unto itself, with civilian populations growing up around military installations, and the hustle and bustle of commerce, farming, taxing, cooking and small industry - all of it strung out on a narrow strip of land stretching from Solway Firth on the west coast to the mouth of the River Tyne, to what is now called Wallsend, in the east.

After the Roman retreat from Britain in the fifth century, Hadrian's Wall gradually disappeared, the victim of erosion, border wars and the desire of local populations for ready building material. But much of it still stands, particularly in central Northumberland.

Our family group - my husband, Stuart, and I; Sam, then age 13; and our twins, Rose and Jonathan, then 9 - lacked both the time and the all-weather gear to hike the whole path (to say the least). But we managed to cover choice bits of it - equipped, as we were, with a station wagon, sneakers, brochures and a map.

In general, we concentrated on the midsection of the wall around the Roman forts of Birdoswald and Vindolanda, taking short walks in both directions from the parking lots and admiring the romantic, and sometimes rough, scenery. But we started in Bowness-on-Solway, on the far western end of the wall and just spitting distance from the Irish Sea. There we stayed in Wallsend House, a bed-and-breakfast with lovely gardens and large, charming, comfortable rooms.

At breakfast we met a rather elderly Swedish man who had just completed walking the entire length of the wall, staying at bed-and-breakfasts and youth hostels - British youth hostels are no longer just for youth - along the way, a journey that took him about two weeks.

The village of Bowness-on-Solway has a friendly pub, the King's Arms (with quite decent food) and gardens bursting with bloom; bottles of fresh milk are delivered to your front step; bicycles are left leaning near doorways. Most of the buildings, many painted in light pastels, are constructed of stones pilfered from the large Roman fortress - the second-largest along the wall, guarding water approaches - that today lies under a field of wildflowers, just beneath our bedroom window.

St. Michael's, a Norman church dating from the 12th century, occupies the probable site of one of the fort's central buildings, perhaps the granary, and is built with worked stones from the wall. The whole small town overlooks Solway Firth - an inlet of the Irish Sea - a famous bird-watching site.

We walked both east and west along the road on the first leg of the official Wall Path, admiring the wide sand beach, listening to the call of birds and stopping to smell the flowers. We also saw a lot of cows, some of them quite willing to be petted.

As we drove east the next day, we must have passed a half-dozen walkers with rucksacks and hiking boots heading west. Just beyond the city of Carlisle, we got off the main road (A69) and onto the path of the ancient Roman Stanegate, the military highway of its day (today's B6318), following what was the original turf-and-mud wall that preceded Hadrian's grand enterprise. Within minutes we saw Lanercost Priory, a haunting 12th-century abbey, now in ruins, built, as so much in the neighborhood is, with plundered wall stones.

A few more twists and turns in the road, a few more hedgerows and ancient farmhouses, and we were at our first serious stopping point: Birdoswald Roman Fort, one of 16 forts that were built along the wall. In its heyday, the fort would have held about 1,000 Roman soldiers. Today, what's left is mainly low stone walls - the headquarters, barracks, granary and gateways. There is evidence of a settlement here going back at least 2,000 years: in 1996 archaeologists discovered a neolithic grave that appears to have been robbed by Romans and used as a garbage pit. A good, if modest, museum has beautiful examples of Roman pottery. On the day we were there, several troupes of Morris dancers performed, decked out in colorful costumes, with wildflowers attached to their hats and bells on their knees.

From Birdoswald, too, it's possible to take a lovely short walk along the wall, with views of the distant Lake District Fells to Harrow's Scar milecastle, or a longer walk across a valley to see Roman bridge abutments at Willowford.

Our next stop was the Roman Army Museum, five minutes down the road, which the kids loved for its scale models and somewhat hokey but life-size figures of Roman soldiers and citizens, and I loved for its display of ancient Roman footwear (amazingly well preserved in the peat bogs). A wonderful short film, "The Eagle's Eye," takes viewers on an aerial journey over and along the midsection of the wall. The camera swoops down into the remains of the fortresses, where - presto! - the walls suddenly grow back into their former, fully built glory, manned by soldiers.

After the thrill of the aerial journey, we had no choice but to get out into the sunshine and hike the part of the wall that we'd seen on the screen. We walked up through fields of buttercups to rather steep crags (known as the Walltown Crags) looking north into the territory of the barbarians, and on for another 20 minutes or so until we saw a rather steely-eyed bull - time to turn back.

We could have walked the entire 10 or so miles to Vindolanda, lying just south of the wall (on the original Stanegate), but I was eager to get there.

For my money, Vindolanda was it. The site is vast, some 15 acres, with ruins of what was a very large settlement, including well-marked temples, bathhouses and (to the unending amusement of my children) toilets designed to be used by several people at a time. There is also a reconstructed section of the wall, a Roman temple, general store and house, and well-marked excavations of the civilian settlement that grew up around the fortress, with its weavers, grocers, alehouses, cheese makers and all the rest, as well as a working excavation site.

The museum is a treasure trove, with dozens of examples of rare Roman writing on thin sheets of wood (the postcards of the day), with missives from home ranging from the practical: "New underpants and socks are on the way," to the heart-rending: "Farewell, brother, most dear to your Secundus." (The British Museum has named the Vindolanda tablets it has as among its top 10 treasures.) There are also artifacts galore: tools, religious objects, cutlery, bowls, stunning pottery, including a complete green glass bottle, weights and measures, cosmetic instruments, jewelry, tombstones and yet more shoes, some with beautiful leather latticework that would make today's shoe designers blush with envy.

We spent our second night some miles south of the town of Hexham, at the comfortable Rye Hill Farm bed-and-breakfast, with views of pigs and sheep. But before we turned in for the night, we tucked into a delicious, sophisticated and freshly prepared meal - in the middle of nowhere - at the nearby Travellers Rest inn. (Stuart had seared sea bass on sautéed leeks with salsa verde, I ate monkfish with honey and ginger and the kids had pizza.)

It was drizzling the next morning, so we decided to head into Hexham, which was once the main market town of the area and now doubles as a commuter town for Newcastle. At its center is Hexham Abbey, founded around 674 by the bishop of York. The present building, with its soaring ceilings and stained-glass windows, dates from the 12th century. It is surrounded by ancient, narrow streets, today filled with shops and restaurants.

Also in the neighborhood is the Old Gaol, the oldest building to be built as a jail in England, which houses the Border History Museum where you can learn about all kinds of bloody midnight raids, nighttime slaughters and decades-long feuds.

By the time we emerged from Hexham, the skies were growing darker, so we were lucky to get to Aydon Castle, just north of the town of Corbridge, with dry clothes. And I'm glad we did, as Aydon is one of England's finest fortified manor homes, dating from the 13th century. It is beautifully preserved, and, because it was inhabited by ordinary (if rich) farming folk up until 1966, you can really get a feel for life inside its rooms. Beneath the castle is a magnificent green ravine, which you can hike into, as we did, getting out just before the skies opened up.

The deluge didn't stop us from braving the magnificent gardens at Chesters Walled Garden (famous for its Roman herb gardens and its collections of thyme and marjoram).

But the weather did, unfortunately, prevent us from exploring the wild upland trails of Northumberland National Park and adjacent Kielder Forest Park, with its peaks and valleys, lakes and waterfalls, and views of the Pennines. So we contented ourselves with knowing that we had visited the southernmost slice of Northumberland Park, where the wall runs like a sentinel of living history, from one side of England to the other.

Travel Information

Sites and Museums

Information on Hadrian's Wall can be found at http://www.hadrians-wall.org/, which describes the wall's history as well as providing directions on how to reach and explore it (with maps), an extensive list of places to stay along and near the wall, restaurants, museums, Roman sites and events. Information line: (44-1434) 322002. Another informative site is www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrianswall.

The Birdoswald Roman Fort, (44-16977) 47602, http://www.birdoswaldromanfort.org/, near Carlisle, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. March 1 to Nov. 9. Admission is $4.80, at $1.63 to the pound.

Vindolanda, (44-1434) 344277, near Bardon Mill, and the Roman Army Museum, (44-16977) 47485, near Greenhead, http://www.vindolanda.com/, are open daily mid-February to mid-November; both open at 10 a.m.; closing times vary from 5 to 6:30 p.m., depending on the season. Admission for Vindolanda is $6.60; for the Army Museum, $5.30; a combined ticket costs $9.60.

The Border History Museum, (44-1434) 652349, in Hexham, is open every day 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April to October; Saturday, Monday and Tuesday the rest of the year. Admission is $3.20.

Aydon Castle, (44-1434) 632450, in Hexham, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April to September; to 5 p.m. October to April. Admission is $2.

Where to Stay and Eat

Wallsend House, in Bowness-on-Solway, is about 15 miles west of Carlisle; (44-16973) 51055; http://www.wallsend.net/. Five bedrooms with private bath, approximately $32 a person a night, including full English breakfast; a single room, $35. Cash or check, no credit cards.

Rye Hill Farm, in Slaley, is five miles south of Hexham; (44-1434) 673259; http://www.ryehillfarm.co.uk/. A double room is about $35 a person a night, including full English breakfast; single room is $45. A self-catering cottage that sleeps nine is $560 to $1,120 a week, depending on the season. Dinner costs about $23 a person, with wine.

At the Travellers Rest, Slaley, near Hexham, (44-1434) 673231, dinner for two with wine is about $65. A double room is $40 per person, including a full English breakfast.

JENNIFER MOSES lived for a year in Glasgow.