'Lazy' dog owners hide poo bags in Hadrian's Wall

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Jo LonsdaleNorth East and Cumbria

Northumberland National Park Authority A close up image of a section of Hadrian's Wall with its destinctive square blocks. A knotted purple and green plastic poo bag has been pushed into a crack in the wall

It took 15,000 soldiers six years to build, is a Unesco World Heritage site and arguably the best-known Roman structure still visible in Britain. But that does not stop people using the 1,900-year-old cracks and holes of Hadrian's Wall to hide their dog poo bags.

Walking out of the car park at Steel Rigg, with Hadrian's Wall rising steeply out of the morning mist, Margaret Anderson sighs.

Northumberland National Park's head ranger has spotted dog mess next to the footpath just a few metres from a sign asking people to bag and dispose of it responsibly.

What is just as bad, in her view, are those dog walkers who do pick up after their dogs but then just poke the bags into the wall to avoid carrying them.

"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 adds.

Northumberland National Park Authority A green dog poo bag has been left on top of the grassy top of a stretch of Hadrians Wall. The wall drops down into a gap and beyond it a path stretches up a hill

Striding 73 miles across some of the wildest and most dramatic country in England, Hadrian's Wall stretches from Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria on the west coast to Wallsend in North Tyneside.

Anderson accepts there are few, if any, bins along the famous central section of the wall, not even in the car park at Steel Rigg, the gateway to its most visited stretch.

An aerial view of a stretch of Hadrian's Wall which stretches out into the distance along a geological structure called a sill which rises steeply out of the group meaning the wall sits on a cliff edge.

"The last thing we want are more and more structures along here," she says.

"And 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."

Taylor Hughes is a man in his thirties wearing a blue beanie, blue jeans and a dark blue top and black boots. He has two small dogs on leads. He is standing in front of a wall with a stretch of Hadrian's Wall visible

It is a cold and blustery spring morning but there are still plenty of walkers heading out with their dogs.

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".

A little further along the trail, Kate Harrison from Durham, with dachshund Bobbi trotting cheerfully along, calls it "absolutely horrific".

"There's no reason why people can't put it into a bag and take it home with them."

"I'll be picking up after little Bobbi, promise," she laughs.

Kate Harrison is a young woman holding dachshund Bobbi in her arms. She is wearing a pink anorak and behind her is a long stretch of hillside with a path and a row of trees at the top

Dog poo bags are not the only indignity the famous defensive frontier has to endure.

People climb on to it to get selfies, lift their children on to it, or eat picnics on its broad flanks.

But for Tony Gates, the outgoing CEO of the Northumberland National Park Authority, the dog poo issue is the one he "can't get my head around".

"I mean you come to see this wonderful view, this amazing piece of history, would it look the same if every 50m or so there's a poo bag hanging out of it?

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