Our European Vacation, Part 2, Walking Hadrian's Wall!

A view of  Hadrian's Wall.

We were now on our way to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the start of our hike. We enjoyed the train ride from London, taking in the countryside. Eventually we made it to the bustling city of Newcastle.

Newcastle! Our walk will take us all the way through town on the riverside path on the left bank.

After disembarking the train, we caught the Metro to West Jesmond, where our first night's lodging, the Dene Hotel, was located. This was a suburb of Newcastle near a university so there were lots of pubs and restaurants but we actually ended up eating at the Turkish cafe that was attached to our hotel, and it was quite good.

The next morning we caught the Metro to the eastern fringe of Newcastle, Wallsend and started our trek at the site of the old Roman fort Segedunum. Most of the foundations for this fort are visible and there is a very good museum here.

The Roman fort at Segedunum.

The beginning of our walk at Segedunum, 84 miles to go.

The first day's walk would be the longest of the trip, 11.5 miles. A lot of it was through Newcastle which, while interesting at first, began to get a little tedious. We stopped at a large pub for a snack and a beer then pressed on to our first B&B, the Keelman's Lodge which was ever so thoughtfully co-located with  Big Lamp Brewery in the village of Newburn.

On the river walk in Newcastle.

Our room at Keelman's Lodge.

The next day was cloudy with light rain, but not terribly uncomfortable for walking. We encountered a section of the wall for the first time at Heddon-on-the-Wall. It was mostly the foundation of a stretch of the "wide wall". 

Our first encounter with the Wall in the wild!

We were now passing through a more rural region, mainly following country roads. We reached the Robin Hood Inn in the early afternoon and had lunch there. We were picked up at this point by a cab which had been booked by the tour company and taken to our next B&B, the Felcroft, located in the village of Corbridge. Today's walk was about 9 miles.

Here we met Deb and Bob Hall, who were joining us for the rest of the walk! We strolled around the old town of Corbridge and enjoyed a drink in the bar located in a old castle tower.

Enjoying gin and tonics in Corbridge!

There are extensive remains of a Roman fort on the outskirts of Corbridge and we went over to explore that. The remains of the granary, with its raised flooring, was especially noteworthy.

The granary at Corbridge.

The next morning the four of us struck out for our day's walk which would take us to Humshaugh. The terrain was a bit rolling and we sometimes passed through farmer's fields. A large part of the walk is through such fields and we often encountered various gates, styles and ladders as we tramped through them.

One of a number of ways through a fence!

Sometimes a simple ladder.

This is a "kissing gate".

 Many of these fields were shared with farm animals and everybody liked to converge on gates, resulting in some very soggy and muddy  areas at some points.

There was mud...

We eventually came to another stretch of the wall and followed it for a few miles. It was more impressive than the one at Heddon-on-the-Wall. We came upon the remains of a turret, (Brunton Turret), shortly before our stop for the day at Humshaugh.

Brunton Turret.

A word is in order regarding the design of the Wall. It was designed to be a defensive line protecting the northern frontier of Roman Britain. Large forts existed at Carlisle in the west and Colbridge in the east and so the wall ran along a line through these two forts, and extended to Bowness on Solway on the west coast, and to Wallsend, in Newcastle, on the east coast. Along the length of the wall, series of milecastles were established.  These were strongpoints, places where a few troops would be stationed to guard the frontier. In between the milecastles, one, two and sometimes more turrets were placed for observation posts. A series of forts reinforced the milecastles and housed most of the troops.

Earthworks, including a steep, deep ditch was dug on the north side of the wall. To the south, a broad dugout stretch, the vallum, could be found. Historians don't seem to know the exact purpose of the Vallum. The military way, installed for the rapid deployment of troops and other communications, was found between the Wall and the Vallum. This network of wall and earthworks stretched for 84 miles, coast to coast across the narrow point of the British Island.

A cross section of the Wall's design.

A little more than half of the Wall was to be of stone, about 10 feet thick. but a significant portion of it was constructed of turf, with sloping walls. Also, eventually the width of the stone wall was reduced to 7 1/2 feet. The construction of the Wall was such an enormous undertaking that many changes occurred in its design over the years of construction, the final Wall was something of a hybrid. Along the entire Wall, a deep ditch was planned to run along the north side, and this was mostly done, except in some mountainous and rocky areas. Often, when there was no trace of the Wall itself, you could discern the ditch or the vallum and guess where the Wall had been located.

(Photo link)

Back to our walk. Our stay in Humshaugh was quite nice. We had a nice room at the Linden House, and enjoyed dinner and ale at the Crown Inn, just a few steps away. Looking over the menu, I had to order the "Bubble and Squeak"! This turned out to be mashed potatoes with various veggies thrown in. Not bad!

The next morning we had a short walk to Chesters where the are extensive ruins of a Roman Fort. The owner of the land was a farmer who was fascinated with the ruins and played an important role in saving much of what now remains. The most impressive building at this fort is the bathhouse, situated close to the river.

The bathhouse at Chesters.

Another view.

After Chesters we walked to Housteads, site of another Roman Fort.  The days walk was more or less uneventful, with occasional sightings of turrets and milecastles. The path took us into higher country now, we were definitely in hill country. It was one of the longer days' walks at 10 miles. We reached the Houseteads Fort, then had to head down into the valley to reach our B&B, Begar Bog Farm.

Begar Bog Farm.

We were really out in the country now. There was no town or restaurant here. However, our host was really gracious and went out of his way, driving us to a pub and picking us up later that night. Very nice fellow and the lodging was quite comfortable.

The next day was the most scenic and probably the hardest walk of our tour. We left Begar Bog heading back towards Housesteads fort to get back on the trail. We ascended into a series of crags which afforded us some wonderful views.  Some of the walking got downright challenging in places, the were lots of stone "stairs" which were uneven and slippery when wet and most were wet!

Some of the finest surviving portions of the wall and its milecastles exist here:

Milecastle 39 along the Wall.

The remains of an arched gateway at milecastle 37.

Sycamore Gap, which is apparently is in a Robin Hood movie.

On this stage we reached the highest point of the wall, at 345 meters.

Now we headed more or less downhill to our next night's lodging at Greenhead. Just before our turnoff from the trail, we came to Thirlwall Castle, a 14th century structure built of Roman stone.

Thirwall Castle

This stage was the most scenic of our trip, here's one more shot before we continue:

Greenhead was another small village. We stayed at the local pub where we also had dinner. Our next day's walk was easier; 7 1/2 miles of more or less level ground, a lot of farms now. At one point we came to a site where the wall joined abutments of the old Roman bridge, now long gone.

The Wall yields to bridge abutments for a river which has now moved away.

 We now crossed the River Irthing and passed through undulating country, passing through several farms and coming to another Roman Fort at Birdoswald. This was an interesting site in that after the Roman period the fort was used by later generations in Medieval times as a strongpoint. We began dropping in elevation and left the hilly crag country as we approached Haytongate and turned off the path, walking past the Lanercost Priory and crossing a bridge to our B&B at Abbey Bridge.

Passing the Priory at Lanercost

Abbey Bridge was really an exceptional B&B. Our host was very friendly and the other guests were interesting. dinner was good and the rooms very comfortable.

Abbey Bridge

The next day's walk was another relatively short one, 8 miles of fairly flat farmland. We did encounter rain on this day and a fair amount of mud in the fields. Eventually we made it to the village of Crosby-on-Eden, and stopped at the town's pub. 

Departing Lanercost

A typical day on the walk in the lower country.

Our lodging for this evening turned out to be just a couple of miles from our last B&B! Turned out our outfitters had to book our lodging in Brampton, just down the road from Lanercost! Our lodging was in an old mansion! 

Quite a fancy place for the night.

The next morning we were driven back to Crosby-on-Eden to begin the days walk. Today's walk was only 5 miles through an increasingly suburban environment. We were now approaching Carlisle, a large city and once an anchor point for Hadrian's Wall. Getting to our night's lodging proved to be a little more challenging than planned since the pedestrian bridge we had expected to use was closed due to flood damage.

Approaching Carlisle.

 After some confusion, and after making our way through a large fun run going through the middle of town, we finally made it to our hotel. Our hosts seemed a bit put off by our early arrival, but they let us drop our packs. We walked through town and made it to the old town and the train station. I found a very nice wool shop and Shelly found her favorite beer of the trip!

Punk IPA by Brewdog brewers was a hit!

At Carlisle

Carlisle is a big city with lots of eating places. We had dinner with Bob and Deb at an Italian place that wasn't too bad. We would have another chance to explore Carlisle, 2 chances actually since we would return to pick up our rental car and then drop it off again after our trip to Scotland.

For now we had to return to the path. The weather at the start of the day was threatening. high winds and the promise of showers. We definitely got the wind, but the showers were intermittent, we didn't get soaked! Today's walk was 7 miles to Burgh-by-Sands. The path follows the River Eden as it approaches the Solway Firth, a broad area of marshlands stretching to the Irish Sea.

A view of the Solway Firth from our B&B outside Burgh-by-Sands.

We enjoyed another evening at our B&B, which was a couple miles west of Burgh-by-Sands; Our hosts drove us to nearby Glasson for dinner at the Highland Laddie Pub, where it is claimed Bonnie Prince Charlie stopped.

The next day we began our last walk, about 5 miles to the Path's end at Bowness-on-Solway. Now we were in low lying country, subject to flooding at high tides!

We soon made it to Bowness and the end of our walk.

Made it! Me, Deb, Bob and Shelly at Bowness City limits!

Yard art at our B&B.

We spent our last evening at our B&B in Bowness. Our hostess was a character and was preparing to close up for the season. We took a stroll around the town then had dinner at the local pub. The next morning we would catch a cab to Carlisle where we would pick up our rental car for our trip to Scotland.

This was a wonderful trip. There were options offered by our outfitters for varying number of days to take the tour and we took the longest possible, 10 days/11 nights so we would not be forced to walk too long of distances. We could have shortened it by a day or two, but I enjoyed our pace which was not too hurried and allowed us to enjoy our evenings in the various small towns.