4 days, 39 miles, spectacular scenery, bright sunshine, 40 knot winds, rain even some small hail – our walk had it all.
We set off Wednesday morning about 10 after a hearty English Breakfast at our B&B. We had a 4 mile walk mostly uphill before we reached the Hadrian’s Wall Path. This is a National Trail mostly through green fields of sheep and lambs. Our first “fort” at Halston has not been excavated so the small mounds near the road did not inspire.
Our first sight of the wall was at Planetrees, a short length that showed a section of narrow 2m wall meeting the 3m wide wall. The 84 miles of the wall was completed in just 7 years to keep out the barbarians in the north. Roman Emperor Hadrian visited England in AD122 and had instructed that a wall be built to define the northern boundary of the empire. The central section we are walking contains most of the remaining wall, turrets and forts and is therefore the most interesting walking.
Fine weather with little wind made this our easiest days walking though we saw only a few short sections of wall and 1 turret. We spent the night at a great B&B at Humhaugh.
Thursday was overcast and had a strong wind from the west. As we are travelling the wall east to west it is in our face all day. On the top of the many hills we climb today I estimate the wind gets to 40 knots. It is also cold and at 12 miles is our longest day.
We arrive at our accommodation at 6.30. If this sounds hard it is – but today also has the most spectacular scenery and wall sections along the crags.
We also visit Chesters and Housestead Forts and Museums.
Friday we awake to rain but thankfully the low has moved south so the wind is behind us. This means the walking is much more enjoyable although it is still bitterly cold and we wear our wet weather gear all day.
More spectacular views from the top of Winshields Crags and a visit to the Roman Army Museum. This gave a soldiers view of life on the wall including a 3D movie with a flyover of the wall that we had just walked.
Our final day, Saturday we awoke to bright sunshine and light winds for the last 8 miles to Brampton.
We had dinner at a pub with Swedish friends Anita and Ake who we had met at our first B&B and numerous times along the journey. This has been a highlight of our trip so far and we would certainly recommend the walk.