Caerleon

A short hop across the river into Wales is a lovely little town called Caerleon, which apparently is technically a suburb of Newport, but in reality stands quite alone.what brought me here is a an excavation of a Roman army base, which if fully excavated, would be one of the largest in Britain. As with all these places, money and existing buildings make that difficult. They have uncovered barracks, an amphitheatre and baths and have a lovely museum with some of the findings dug from the fields. They have also done a geophysical search of a field down near the river and have identified what appears to be a major port. Given the known size of the garrison it would make sense that they were placed for strategic protection.
Wendy's longtime friend Maggie lives here, and she and her partner not only put me up for the night but also spent the day showing me around the village and the Roman sites. It was a misty, moisty day but we ventured out. The town is lovely, one of those unspoilt little villages with pubs, rows of cottages, old churches and a string of traffic slowly making its way through the narrow streets! The sites are scattered through the town and we did the outside ones first because the forecast was for rain later. At the barracks I could clearly see the individual rooms and it was fun trying to guess what the different sized rooms were for. The amphitheatre in the next field was full of primary school children busily pretending to kill each other in the centre. The seats were wooden so there are now grassy mounds edged with stone supports, but the basic structure is still clearly there. As with most Roman sites, much of the original stone will now be in local buildings. The baths are partly excavated and they have a mesmerising sound and light show. Lights create a rippling effect across the whole section and in the middle there is a rectangular 'pool' where a video projection shows people slowly swimming across, dragging the information behind them. Meditative music plays in the background. It's probably hard to picture and might sound a bit twee but it's actually very effective and really soothing. The museum was quite small but really well set out with brightly lit cases and a quality display. Similarly to Bath, there were some lovely seal stones found in the excavation. Going from one Roman museum to the next there is a lot of repetition, but when it is attractively displayed it pulls me in no matter how many I have seen before.
We also wandered through the town, and had lunch in an old pub. I still can't bring myself to have a beer, but I did have a cider from the tap, so I think I can tick that off. Keith was keen to take me on a pub crawl after dinner, but the promised rain had set in by then. Having Maggie and Keith there really made it a special day and I am very appreciative of their kindness.