Hadrian’s Wall is becoming one long poo bin thanks to shameless dog owners

When Emperor Hadrian completed his mega wall to keep terrifying Scottish tribes out of the Roman Empire, he could never have envisioned how it would end up being used nearly 2,000 years later – a place to hide dog poo.

Dogwalkers are being shamed for wrapping up their precious pet’s leftovers and then stuffing it, into the gaps of the 73-mile long Unesco World Heritage Site stretching across the UK’s most dramatic landscapes.

Northumberland National Park’s head ranger Margaret Anderson told the BBC: ‘It’s a real sense of frustration, we have this amazing structure here which so many people want to come and enjoy,’ she says.

‘For somebody to think it’s acceptable to wedge poo bags into a Unesco World Heritage site, well actually it makes you quite sad.’

She acknowledged the lack of bins in the area of natural beauty, but offered a simple solution.

‘Let’s face it, it’s really not hard to carry your poo bag, you can get little pouches to put it in, pop it in your pocket or your backpack until you get somewhere where you can dispose of it.’

A dog walker Taylor Hughes from Wrexham says hiding poo bags in Hadrian’s Wall is ‘just lazy’.

‘Nobody likes picking up dog mess, but as a dog owner, it’s just what you do’.

It has not only the Scottish tribes, known in Roman times as Picts, that have damaged the historic wall throughout history.

Following an assessment by archaeologists, the heritage body has discovered fragments were chipped off Hadrian’s wall when the Sycamore Gap tree fell causing cracks in the stones.

In 2018, rogue metal detectorists were accused of destroying Hadrian’s wall – making 50 holes at one of the best-preserved parts of the famous Roman relic.

The ‘nighthawks’ (the term for illegal metal detector-wielding treasure hunters) are targeting the Brunton Turret section of the 1,900-year-old World Heritage Site, Historic England said.

The turret and wall section were built by the men of the Twentieth Legion of the Roman Army, and are scheduled monuments where using a metal detector without proper authorisation is a criminal offence.

Historic England is calling on visitors to Hadrian’s Wall and Tyne Valley residents to report illegal metal detecting, which is ‘causing loss and damage to our shared cultural heritage’.