Hadrian's Wall

Sunday 27th August 2006 (and Tuesday 29th)

My original plan for this day had been to do a walk in the forests and moors north of Kielder Water, but my heart wasn't really into it. I was not looking forward to the walk so when I noticed a sign for Hadrian's Wall, I immediately changed my plans and headed for Chesters Roman Fort. This was actually the walk that I had planned to do on Tuesday, so I was going to have to think of a new walk for then. After looking around the fort I set off along the Hadrian's Wall Path and soon decided that I'd started at the wrong place. I'd heard that the best bit of the wall was the section in the Northumberland National Park, so I'd started on the edge of the park at Chesters, which was a mistake. The first five miles are dull as I was walking through fields beside a road that had been built right on top of the wall. The path didn't start getting interesting until I left the road behind and started climbing onto a high buttressed ridge.

Only in this sort of landscape has the wall survived the centuries and provided me with a thrilling ridge walk above steep cliffs over the wall and grassy slopes to my left. Although relatively easy at first, the path became harder going after I passed Housesteads Fort as the terrain turned into a series of steep ups and downs that was being made even more tricky by repeated short, heavy showers that plagued me all afternoon. Eventually I arrived at Milecastle 42, where I left the wall, walked across to the Milecastle Inn and caught a bus back to Chesters. I wished that I had been able to walk further along the wall but this was as far as I could go and still get back to my car. Originally I'd planned to walk as far as Greenhead, on the western edge of the National Park, but I didn't have time for that. However I still managed to walk over some of the best bits, even though with hindsight it would have been better if I had started further along the path so I could have gone all the way to Greenhead. The best bits of the wall are definitely at the top of the ridges later on in the walk, which were fabulous.

Two days later I returned to Hadrian's Wall so I could resume my walk beside the wall. I had always intended on walking along the wall on Tuesday and since I had wanted to continue to Greenhead it was an obvious decision to return when I could. I remember those two walks as being really enjoyable and informative as well as being great walks. The second walk started at the Once Brewed Visitor Centre and once beside the wall I proceeded over Windshields Crags and Cawfield Crags to Milecastle 42 where I'd left the wall two days previously. The weather this time was much better and I enjoyed bright sunshine as I climbed up Cockmount Hill and over Walltown Crags where some very good sections of the wall are to be found.

Beyond Walltown there are no traces of the wall as the path crosses the railway and the main road so the Hadrian's Wall Path continues through fields to Gilsland where suddenly Milecastle 48 appears, hidden beside the railway, and beyond a road the wall itself re-appears as good as ever. The wall continues in this fashion to Willowford and drops steeply down to the River Irthing where the remains of the Roman bridge sits in the middle of a field, a short distance from the river itself, which has moved over the centuries. A well-engineered bridge took me over the river and once more beside the wall I soon reached the Fort of Birdoswald. There I caught a bus back to Once Brewed completing another fabulous day on Hadrian's Wall. I would really recommend visiting the wall as it is stimulating on many levels, satisfying intellectually as well as emotionally.