Until 1999 the decennial Hadrian's Wall Pilgrimage had traditionally acted as the ‘pre-Excursion’ for the International Limes (Roman Frontier Studies) Congress when the conference returned to the UK every ten years. 2009 saw both the 150th anniversary of the first Pilgrimage organised by J. Collingwood Bruce in 1849 and the 60th anniversary of the first Limes Congress; a Congress based in Newcastle upon Tyne appropriately reunited the events and served to mark the anniversaries. Both events traditionally produce handbooks and the two main publications considered here are both worthy of those traditions and most welcome additions to both the voluminous literature on Hadrian's Wall and the sparser range of general publications relating to Roman military sites in Northern England. They are similar in format, but different in approach, reflecting the differences in the available literature alluded to above.

Hadrian's Wall 1999–2009 presents itself, ‘not [as] a guidebook to the Wall, but an account of new discovery and research [during 1999–2009], both on general themes and individual sites’. Anyone not intimately familiar with Wall Studies would be well advised to read it with a copy of David Breeze's J. Collingwood Bruce's Handbook to the Roman Wall (fourteenth edition) to hand, not due to any failings inherent in Hadrian's Wall 1999–2009, but rather as a reflection of the strengths and differing foci of the two volumes. It is difficult to critique what may be regarded as the core element of Hadrian's Wall 1999–2009, an extended essay by Nick Hodgson: ‘A Review of Research on Hadrian's Wall 1999–2009’. However, in its 47 pages H. manages to summarise clearly and comprehensively most areas of research against themes readily recognisable to anyone with an awareness of Wall Studies and incorporating summaries of key contributions to the literature — it should be required reading for anyone studying or interested in Hadrian's Wall. A second, shorter, but none-the-less useful, essay by a variety of authors provides useful updates on other activity within the ten-year purview of the volume: ‘Environmental Archaeology and Science’, ‘Recording the Roman Wall’, the ‘National Mapping Programme Survey’, ‘Finds Reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme’ and ‘Management’. As with H.'s essay, it is difficult to identify weaknesses in the other major element of the volume: ‘Survey and Excavation on Hadrian's Wall, 1999–2009’ written as it is by ‘various authors’, meaning in general those responsible for the work and, consequently, best placed to summarise their results. If editorial ‘red pens’ were required on any of the contributions, it does not show and this section both underpins H.'s essay and provides coherent summaries of what are in many cases multi-season projects. The fourth key element of the volume is the bibliography, compiled by H., which includes ‘all substantial publications which have come to my notice between 1999 and May 2009’.

The Roman Army in Northern England commences with a very thorough summary of our knowledge of the military sites of an area delimited to the north and north-west by the area covered by The Handbook to the Roman Wall and extending as far south as Cheshire, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The changing military dispositions over time are considered, with the accompanying series of chronological maps showing ‘all of the forts occupied within a given period’ rather than attempting to ‘represent a settled pattern after [periods of] widespread movement of units’ as presented by, for example, Frere in his Britannia. A History of Roman Britain (4th edn, 1991). This rather sets the tone for the volume, which is not to suggest it reads, or is intended primarily as a challenge to the orthodoxy that Frere's Britannia can be seen to represent; but rather that it reflects the product of two leading military scholars being allowed the freedom to collate, consider and articulate their thoughts on a subject that they are immersed in. The introductory essay extends to considering the: ‘state of research’; ‘indigenous societies encountered by the Roman army’; ‘post-Roman and Anglo-Saxon occupation of Roman military sites’; ‘vici’ and ‘extra-mural settlements’; ‘military architecture’; and ‘the character and purpose of military occupation of northern England’. The volume would be worth reading for the introductory essay alone, but combined with the gazetteer which makes up the bulk of the volume it is a book that anyone who works on ‘the military north’ should own as a work of reference. Each fort is described at a length appropriate to our level of knowledge, or the complexity of the site, with many of the descriptions being supported by a plan and most by a useful list of ‘sources’ (i.e. references). The gazetteer is not alphabetical, the sites being organised as a series of ‘itineraries’, which means to find a site you have to resort to the index. The indexing for this volume and Hadrian's Wall is limited to the site entries, reflecting no doubt the necessity of having the handbooks available in time for the Pilgrimage and Limes Congress, as evidenced by the May 2009 cut-off date for H.'s Bibliography in Hadrian's Wall 1999–2009, which would have left around three months to get the volume printed and into the Pilgrims' hands. While many might wish for indices that covered the discussion chapters, their absence may be no bad thing if it forces more readers to read the full essays, rather than ‘dipping-in’ for the ‘relevant’ references.

The two other publications covered by the review also represent important contributions to the literature. The first, Roman Scotland compiled by Nick Hodgson, was produced to accompany the Limes Congress post-conference excursion to Scotland and like the Pilgrimage handbook with respect to Hadrian's Wall does not seek to be ‘a complete guide to all Roman sites in Scotland’, but rather presents a ‘simple account of the sites to be visited’. However the volume also has a second aim: ‘to describe what has changed in the study of Roman Scotland since the Limes Congress last visited in 1979’. The approach is to incorporate the site descriptions into nine essays that, while necessarily short, are authoritative and provide excellent introductions to the subject matter, particularly as they are supported by bibliographies that will lead the reader into the wider literature. The volume was only produced in a short print-run — for those fortunate enough to obtain a copy it will be a useful and well-used addition to their library.

The final publication considered here, English Heritage's An Archaeological Map of Hadrian's Wall, is also a welcome addition to the available ‘literature’, if a map can be considered literature. Clear but unobtrusive 1:25000 Ordnance Survey mapping provides a background against which the current understanding of the various elements of the Hadrian's Wall complex are shown, distinguishing the ‘readily visible’ from those which are less so. The map extends from South Shields to Turret 25B on the Cumberland coast south of Maryport in six sections and, while undoubtedly invaluable to those seeking to visit the sites of the World Heritage Site, it also provides a ready overview to those interested in the Wall from an academic viewpoint. The format is double-sided and it is printed on polyethylene to render it ‘waterproof and durable’. Most of the symbols will be familiar to those who know earlier versions of the map, but this addition seeks to include more information, with, for example, the location of the relatively recently recognised obstacles on the berm being marked to the west of Newcastle, along with the approximate extent of civil settlements and the line of the National Trail.