A New FREE Roman AR Trail in Wallsend

This is an advert for October 2022. Any shares / edits beyond this date have not been asked or paid for. Please always check with the App developers for the most up to date information. 

The Roaming Romans trail is organised by North Tyneside Council and supported by North of Tyne Combined Authority. 

The North Tyneside town of Wallsend obviously has strong links to Roman times. Segedunum is the easternmost part of Hadrian's Wall and is the most thoroughly excavated fort along the wall which makes the town the perfect location for a new Roman-themed augmented reality trail. 

We tested the Roaming Romans trail and had a lovely afternoon putting it through it's paces. Steve is from Wallsend originally and we all lived there when the kids were small so walking around the town was a nice little trip down memory lane for us. 

Need to know: 

• The trail is free to download and available for Android users here and iPhone users here  (or search for 'letsARgo') 
  
  
• It is around 2.5 - 3 miles in total depending on where you start. It should be find for little legs - you can break the trail up into sections if you prefer
  
  
• The route is fully outdoors and dog & pushchair friendly 
  
  
• We completed the trail in around 1.5 hours. You could easily extend your day with a trip to Segedunum, Richardson Dees Park, shopping in the town centre or stop for lunch at one of Wallsend's cafes 
  
  
• The trail is accessible by public transport - we started at Wallsend Metro / Bus Station
  
  
• I would recommend using a fully charged phone - using GPS can be a little draining on battery. I used around 25% of my battery across the 1.5 hours  
  
  
• You can complete the trail at any time and it is self led (although be mindful of Richardson Dees Park opening hours)
  
  
• Please complete during daylight hours (the app will not work well in the dark) 
  
  
• If you do wish to drive, free parking is available in the town centre (see here) 
  
  
• Suitable for all ages from toddlers to teens up to grandparents 

The aim of the trail is to find 10 roaming Romans which are hidden around Wallsend. Once you are in the town centre (I recommend starting at Wallsend Metro Station), open up the app and a GPS-enabled map will show you their locations. 

The map is very easy to use, you can zoom in and out of it and you appear as a little blue dot on the map so you can check you are moving in the right direction. 

The roaming Romans locations are shown as an orange circle and if you click on the circle, a fun fact will appear. 

I'd recommend deciding which Roman you are going to find, clicking on them to read their fact and then heading over. 

As you reach the roaming Roman's location, a finger will appear on the app. Simply click on it and your Roman will magically appear with the help of Augmented Reality.

You won't be able to see the Romans with your naked eye but they magically appear on your phone when you click on their locations. Younger kids will love this little bit of magic and you can have lots of fun posing for photos and videos which you can keep forever and even send to others. 

You can easily take photos from the app (just click the circle that appears at the bottom of your screen) and videos too (hold down the circle to capture a 10 second video). If you tap the Roman, they become animated and will move around / complete an activity.  

The photos are instantly saved to your camera roll with no need to leave the app. As far as these kinds of apps go, it is all pretty seamless.  

We visited on a fairly sunny day and sometimes it was tricky to see the screen at some of the locations where there wasn't any shade so on some of my photos could have the Romans in a better position I think. This all adds to the fun I say though. 

We loved the Romans at Segedunum the best - they did the best movements. Just as a side note - the Romans here are based at the entrance gates, you don't need to enter the museum to find them (but if you have time and aren't with a dog, I definitely recommend - see our blog guide here). 

I have no idea what Dee is doing below! I think maybe summoning a figure??. The Roman in front of them does not look amused. 

Once your roaming Roman appears on screen, you can move around to change his position and bring him closer / further away etc.... to the camera. 

I couldn't resist getting in on the action too. We enjoyed having our photos and videos taken with a Roman and not knowing what they doing and then going back to our phones to see what the photos were like - it kept us engaged. 

It's hard work being a hidden Roman in Wallsend - who knew they were all walking amongst us going about their daily jobs? 

Once you have found a Roman, it is replaced on the map with a satisfying tick. 

After meeting a Roman enjoying a lollipop, the kids decided it was only fair they did this too and we stopped for ice creams at the cafe in Richardson Dees Park. As mentioned earlier,  it was a sunny day on the day of our visit so we also stopped for drinks at Claire's Cakes in Wallsend Indoor Market. 

There are lots of independent businesses in Wallsend and it's nice to support them along the way. Just to also add to this, there is a free water fountain at Richardson Dees Park outside the cafe where you can refill your water bottle free of charge. 

As a family, we're really interested in Roman History and we really enjoyed this trail. It was a good way to get out and about / get our steps in with added points of interest. The facts we discovered along the way were interesting and we had fun creating photos and videos with the augmented reality. 

I am always looking for places where Fozzy can come along too so the fact that he could join us was an added bonus. Best of all though, it was completely free and worked seamlessly for us with zero frustrating glitches to report. 

I liked that the trail took us to parts of Wallsend we wouldn't normally visit or hadn't visited in a long time as it was a good chance to see some of the new independent businesses that had popped up too (more on that at the bottom of the post). 

You don't need to find all of the roaming Romans in one visit / day. The app saves the ones you have already found and then when you re-open the app, it asks you if you'd like to continue the trail you had started or start afresh. This is handy if your kids start getting tired or if you accidentally spend the whole afternoon at the park (which is easy to do). 

As mentioned earlier, the trail should take around 1.5 hours to complete in total but it's very easy to extend your visit and make a day of it by popping into some local attractions and businesses along the way (not all of the below are dog friendly) or enjoy some shopping in the town centre. Here are a few which caught my eye: 

This Well Bee-ing Cafe is a community hub and a place that nutures kindess. You'll be guaranteed a warm welcome with your drinks here. 

Wallsend Market is home to lots of indie businesses. We stopped at Claire's Cakes for refreshments and I also had my eye on Goreti who specialise in Vegan Portugese Food. 

The Bad Cat Cafe is just beside Wallsend Town Hall and looks like lots of fun. I would not have known it was here if the trail hadn't taken us past it and one of our team members has since visited and written a full review (which you can read here). 

Richardson Dees Park is one of the best in the North East. There is a lovely enclosed playground, cafe, skate park, gardens, duck pond, outdoor gym and more. You could defintely spend a good few hours here. You can read my full guide to visiting Richardson Dees Park here. 

Finally, don't miss a trip to Segedunum (admission fees apply for adults).

You can see a life size replica of Hadrian's Wall and climb to the top (ask museum staff for directions), visit the 'Building the Wall' exhibition which includes lots of hands on fun for kids including figuring out how a water wheel works and don't miss the permanent galleries, playground and fantastic views of the fort and Tyne from the viewing tower. 

The perfect way to end a Roman themed day. 

This new trail genuinely gets a 10/10 for us. It worked seamlessly, was an interesting and alternative walk to try with kids (+dog) and we had fun creating the different photos and videos along the way.

We enjoyed discovering several new local businesses which we otherwise wouldn't have known about and I like that it's suitable for all ages and is accessible by public transport too. 

Find out more and download the trail app from the Play Store here or the App Store here.