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A new danger for a historic wall - 27th April 2026
Dog walkers are damaging Hadrian's Wall. The wall, which is over 1,900 years old, kept 'barbarian' tribes out of Roman Britain. But now, dog poo bags could destroy it.
The bags don't just litter a historical site. They introduce new chemicals and micro-plastics into the stones. These things change the structure of the stones. Scientists say that this causes long-term damage.
Hadrian's Wall was started in 122 CE and took 6 years to build. The 117.5-kilometre wall crosses northern England from east to west.
For three centuries, the wall was the Roman empire's northern border. It divided the Roman area from the 'barbarian' tribes to the north. In 1987, it became a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Now, Hadrian's Wall is popular with tourists. It receives over 750,000 visits each year. But some of the visitors are dog walkers who leave their poo bags in gaps in the wall. This damage "makes you quite sad," says Margaret Anderson, who works for the national park.
Some people argue that there aren't enough bins along the wall. But the park managers don't want to add extra structures to the historic site.
Responsible dog walkers have called the damage "absolutely horrific". They think that these people are "simply lazy".
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