An 11-day drive along the Fosse Way and Ermine Street, from the legionary fortress at Exeter to the frontier forts of Hadrian's Wall, with the best Roman sites, bases and drive times.
Britain was a Roman province for close to four hundred years, and the clearest thing it left behind is a road. The Fosse Way ran from Exeter to Lincoln in an almost straight line across the country, and for the first decades after the invasion of AD 43 it marked the western limit of Roman control. Drive it, then carry on north up Ermine Street to York and the frontier, and you get a trip with a real shape to it: the archaeology gets better the further north you go, and it finishes at a wall that has been standing for 1,900 years.
This Roman England road trip itinerary covers 11 days and roughly 740 km, all of it on ordinary A roads, with six cities the Romans founded and two nights at the end on Hadrian's Wall.
The route solves a problem most Roman Britain trips have, which is that the good sites are scattered. Following the Fosse Way puts them in a line. Exeter, Bath, Cirencester, Leicester and Lincoln were all Roman towns on the same road, and every leg between them is between 45 minutes and just over two hours. You are never driving all day, and every base is somewhere you can park once and walk.
The second half changes character. York was the military capital of the north, and beyond it the country empties out until you reach the escarpment where the Wall runs. Ending there, rather than starting there, gives the trip a proper build.
| Leg | Approx drive |
|---|---|
| Exeter to Bath | 2 h |
| Bath to Cirencester | 45 min |
| Cirencester to Leicester | 2 h |
| Leicester to Lincoln | 1 h 25 |
| Lincoln to York | 1 h 35 |
| York to Hexham | 2 h 20 |
Isca Dumnoniorum was a legionary fortress before it was a town, and the Fosse Way starts here. Nearly two miles of city wall still ring the centre, Roman at the base and medieval above. Start the circuit at Northernhay Gardens and give it 90 minutes.
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum holds the finds from under the modern shopping streets and costs nothing to enter. The Underground Passages, the medieval tunnels that carried the city's water supply, are worth booking online because slots go quickly when it rains. For a bed, Hotel du Vin Exeter occupies the old eye infirmary a short walk from Cathedral Green.
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Aquae Sulis was a spa and a sanctuary rather than a garrison town, built around the only hot spring in the country. What survives below street level is the most complete Roman building in Britain, and the temple pediment displayed beside it is the finest piece of Roman sculpture found here.
Book a timed ticket for first entry and you will have the Great Bath more or less to yourself before the coach groups land. Two nights gives you the baths, the Georgian city above them, and time for Thermae Bath Spa, which draws on the same thermal water and has a rooftop pool facing the abbey. Harington's Boutique Hotel, an independent townhouse on a cobbled lane, is a minute's walk from all of it. Park at Lansdown or Odd Down and ride in.
Corinium was the second largest town in Roman Britain, and three major roads met here. The Corinium Museum on Park Street holds the largest collection of Roman mosaics in the country after London, including the Hunting Dogs and the Orpheus pavements. Check the opening times before a late arrival, because the doors shut at 4pm through the winter and it does not open until 2pm on Sundays.
With a spare afternoon, Chedworth Roman Villa sits 15 km north, its bath suites and mosaics protected under cover with a raised walkway over the dig. In town, Jesse's Bistro is tucked down a passageway off Black Jack Street and is the best cooking in Cirencester, so book at weekends.
Ratae Corieltauvorum stood where the Fosse Way crossed the River Soar. The reason to stop now is the Jewry Wall Museum, which reopened in July 2025 after a full rebuild. It wraps a modern museum around one of the largest surviving Roman bath house sites in the UK, with the wall itself standing seven metres high on the other side of the glass and roughly 140 objects on display inside.
The King Richard III Visitor Centre is five minutes' walk away, so park once at St Nicholas Circle and do both. Kayal on Granby Street handles dinner, with Keralan seafood and dosa that has kept the place busy for years. Winstanley House, a Georgian house in parkland on the western edge of the city, is the easiest night's sleep with a car.
Lindum Colonia is where the Fosse Way finishes and Ermine Street takes over, running north from London and on towards the Humber. The remarkable thing about Roman Lincoln is that it is still in use. Newport Arch, two minutes north of the cathedral, is a Roman gate that traffic still drives through.
Stay uphill near Bailgate so you are not hauling luggage up Steep Hill. The Castle Hotel on Westgate sits beside the castle walls, though its restaurant only opens Wednesday to Saturday. Lunch belongs at The Cheese Society, trading since 2002 and still the best thing to eat in the city. Lincoln Castle is worth the ticket for the 1215 Magna Carta and the full wall walk, which lays out the Roman street grid better than any map.
Eboracum ran the north. Constantine was proclaimed emperor here in AD 306, and the fortress wall still underlies the medieval circuit you walk today. Do that walk before 9am when the walls are empty.
The Yorkshire Museum, in the abbey gardens, holds the strongest Roman collection in the north. Then find the Roman Bath museum on St Sampson's Square, which is exactly what it sounds like: a fortress bath house in the cellar of a pub, small, cheap and completely real. Middletons Hotel on Skeldergate spreads across six listed buildings around a courtyard and is easy to park at, which matters here. Use the park and ride otherwise.
Hexham is the practical base for the central sector, a market town whose abbey was built out of stone robbed from the Roman town at Corbridge. Two nights is the minimum to do the Wall properly.
Give one of them to Vindolanda, where excavation runs live through the summer and the writing tablets record ordinary frontier life, including a birthday invitation and a complaint about socks. Give the other to Housesteads, the most complete Roman fort in Britain, on the ridge above the Knag Burn, then walk west along the escarpment towards Steel Rigg. The path is steep, exposed and frequently wet, so bring boots. If you would rather not drive it, the AD122 bus runs from Hexham to both sites.
The Beaumont, an independent Victorian hotel on the Market Place opposite the abbey, is the best base in town, and Bouchon Bistrot on Gilesgate is the best meal on this half of the route. It closes on Sundays, so plan around that.
Hexham station is on the Newcastle to Carlisle line, so a one-way hire car can be dropped in either city. If you have a morning spare before the train, the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle has the Hadrian's Wall gallery, a model of the entire frontier and the altars lifted from the forts, and it is free.
When to go. May to September. The city stops work year round, but the Wall walking is much better in long daylight and dry ground, and Vindolanda's excavation season runs through the summer.
Tickets. Housesteads, Chesters and Corbridge are English Heritage sites, so membership works out cheaper than three day tickets. Vindolanda is independently run and charged separately. The Roman Baths and Lincoln Castle are both worth pre-booking in July and August.
Driving. Nothing on this route is difficult. The longest legs are Exeter to Bath and York to Hexham, both a little over two hours, and the A46 stretch between Leicester and Lincoln is the closest you will get to driving a Roman road as the surveyors laid it out.
Activity level. Moderate. Most days are city walking on flat ground, but the Wall days involve real hill walking on uneven, exposed paths.
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The full route — stops, maps, and driving times — is on Routebook by Kington.
An 11-day drive up the spine of Roman Britain, from the legionary fortress at Exeter along the Fosse Way through Bath, Cirencester, Leicester and Lincoln, then north to York and the frontier forts of Hadrian's Wall.
