I note that "the other main hillwalking magazine" gets regular pelters from forum users over inaccurate labelling of pictures and general sloppiness of detail, but I was surprised to read in the new issue of TGO that Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans to divide the countries of England and Wales.

Now that would be an astounding revelation!
Could we please not have Hadrian's Wall dividing the English from the Scots or even the Romans from the Picts either. There was no nation of England until the 10th century and no nation of Scotland until the ninth at the earliest and really not until the 11th century (although there were kings of Scots before) - some four hundred years and more after the Wall went out of use.
The Wall was a frontier but also a porous one - one through which the Romano-British administration could control the passage of people and trade between Imperial Britain and the tribal lands beyond, lands which, one the other side of the wall, belonged to more or less friendly tribes (the more or less depending upon circumstances at the time) - at least not usually hostile - the tribes being, if anyone's still reading this - the Brigantes (chiefly south of the wall but who may have had some of their northernmost lands beyond), the Votadini to the north-east in what became Northumberland and the south-east of Scotland, the Selgovae to the north in what became the central Borders region, the Novantae to the west (Dumfries and Galloway) and the Damnonii to the north-west (Strathclyde). Only beyond them were the Pictish tribes and the Maetae (as in Dumyat and Myot Hill) encountered, who were indeed frequently hostile to their southern neighbours ("bloody Romanachs")!!

Sorry about the waffle but history's a particular interest of mine.

Oh dear, not sure how that one slipped through the net. Apologies.

Ach well - never mind - I'm sure we'll survive :-) - I've seen some equal errors in history books not to mention the quite intentionally added myths in numerous tv documentaries.
I'm sure the idea of building a wall between England and Wales would have it's supporters on both sides of the wall !

Would that be Offa's Dyke?

David.

It would indeed - but I can only assume that Mercian Government spending was cut, perhaps due to a coinage crisis or macro-economic downturn among the Dark-Age G8 (Kent, Wessex, E Anglia, Bernicia, Deira, Mercia, Sussex and Essex) - and they never got round to putting the wall on top of the earthwork.
Perhaps Offa's Wall would have been the only mutually popular dividing wall in history ?

Nice, it sounds good to me, but I'm no historian.

I just loved the irony in this statement

I've seen some equal errors in history books not to mention the quite intentionally added myths in numerous tv documentaries.

David - I might be missing your drift here but my ref to the historical error related to the mention in TGO of Hadrian's Wall dividing the lands of the English and Welsh - obviously something of a typo for English and Scots (itself wildly off the mark) - and that such an error in a walking mag is not so much of a doo-doo as similar errors in history books/programmes are - merely an amusement - as it clearly is to us two :-) - and of course 'Offa's Wall' is purely our figment.


Just in case anyone Welsh reads this I've only been to Wales once and enjoyed it and yes I spent my money and went home again :-)

No really - I enjoyed the trip.

I know Dave, I just found it amusing that the mistake related directly, in an indirect sort of way, to Offa's Dyke. And that history books/documentaries mistakes came in too. For me the irony is a bit full circle.

Dave.