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| Brian, Di, Simon and Jackie ready to start our walk |
We've just got back from our big walk of the year, following the line of Hadrian's Wall from Bowness On Solway in North Cumbria to South Shields in Tyne and Wear with our friends Simon and Diane. It took us 9 days to complete, we walked a total of 174.5km (108.4 miles), climbed 2,587m (8,487 feet) and were walking for a total of 43 hours, 31 minutes. As you may have guessed, its Brian's turn to write, so this blog will be peppered with some facts and history, but I'll try not to bore you. Although Jackie took part for most of it, she said it was my walk so I should write about it. So here goes:
I've divided it into parts, to make it easy to skip parts you're not interested in.
Background and brief History:
I'll start off with a map, so you can see where it is. Here it is, it shows our actual route in red and each of the blue markers are the places we stayed on each night. Click on the markers and you'll see photos of where we stayed. Zoom in and you can see our wanderings (sometimes in circles!)
When we first arrived in Bowness On Solway at the western end of the site of the wall the information boards told us that we were standing at the North-West extremity of the old Roman Empire, but as Simon pointed out, that isn't strictly accurate. Hadrian's Wall was a secondary wall built further south from an earlier wall, the Antonine Wall, built by Julius Agricola around AD 70's, between the rivers Clyde and Forth. From the mid AD 80's Roman troops were being withdrawn from Scotland as they were needed elsewhere, so around AD 122 Emperor Hadrian consolidated the northern frontier now known as Hadrian's Wall, from an earth bank and ditch to a properly built stone wall, reaching 6m in height in places and 84 miles long, taking 6 years to build and using 15,000 men.
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| Walking through Blossom Alley in Harrogate on the way to the train |
Considering it's nearly 2000 years old, a surprising amount remains to be seen, despite vast quantities of stone having been taken to build priories, castles, churches and roads. There is nothing left of the wall at either end as these sections are easily accessible so offered tempting sources of building materials for subsequent generations. Sometimes a slightly raised mound can be seen with a slight ditch next to it, but in other places nothing at all. It was only on our second day of walking that we came across our first wall section, getting to whole, long sections as we ascended the hills towards Gilsland. The best sections are between here and just beyond Housesteads where the lands drops to lower elevations. There was very little to virtually nothing to see of the wall on the remaining section to Newcastle as, the information boards told us, the wall was destroyed by General Wade in the 18th century in order to use the stone to build his military roads. Apparently he got permission to destroy the wall through an act of parliament, indicating that, even in those days, the importance of the wall from an historical point of view was recognised.
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| On the Settle to Carlisle train approaching the Ribblehead Viaduct |
Preparation:
Simon and I first talked about walking this during our hike of the West Highland Way last year and we started preparing for it in November last year as there is limited accommodation on the way so it needs booking well in advance. Early May seems a good time to do things as it's not too busy and the weather is often a little better and the days longer, so our first decision was which way to do it, West to East or the reverse, then to decided how many days we would take. We decided on West to East as our weather is generally in that direction so we would likely have the wind behind us. Simon had said that Diane, his wife, would like to join us, so it seemed a good opportunity to get Jackie to come along too. She's never liked long distance walking, but we get on so well with Si and Di that I thought that would outweigh her lack of enthusiasm. To an extent it did, but she was less than thrilled and I don't think she'll be doing any more long distance walks in the future. A pity as I'm really hooked on them!
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| About to go over the Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales. There it is on the left |
Anyway, we decided on an 8 day walk of the wall, which is the easier version, adding on an extra day at the end to walk out to the North Sea coast at South Shields so, by December all out hotels and BnB's were booked (no backpacking for me, proper hotels please!). We'd set off on May 3rd, our 20th wedding anniversary, from Bowness On Solway and finish on 12th May at Newcastle On Tyne. We drove up to Si and Di's house in Harrogate and, from there caught the train to Carlisle and a local bus out to Bowness. We'd booked the train from Newcastle back to Harrogate on 12th May, but a strike by the railway workers on 12th and 13th May meant we had to make alternative arrangements at the last minute. Di managed to book us onto a National Express coach service on 12th back to Leeds and from there a local bus back to Harrogate, so it worked out well in the end
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| Waiting for the bus to Bowness in Solway at Carlisle bus station |
Packing:
We decided to carry everything with us in a rucksack rather than use Hadrian's Haul (other hauliers are available) to carry our luggage between stops, although I think Jackie would have liked the use of one! So our packing was minimal and our rucksacks weighed between 8 and 10kg each: waterproofs, 1 set of evening clothes, a few changes of socks and underwear, a couple of top layers, a warmer fleece or duvet jacket, different footwear for the evening, hat, gloves, map, compass, digital maps, lots of snacks for grazing on the way, a 1.5 litre hydration bladder, first aid kit, phone charger - don't forget the phone charger. I took my electric toothbrush but no charger - will it last the trip? Yes it did!
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| Celebrating our 20th anniversary at Southgate BnB in Bowness |
Day 0:
After driving to Si and Di's on 2nd May and staying the night there we set off on the morning of 3rd walking from their house to Harrogate train station and got our two trains, the first to Leeds and then the connecting train from Leeds to Carlisle via the very scenic Settle railway, passing over the Ribblehead viaduct in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. It's an incredibly scenic train journey, all stations look as though they have been frozen in time, taking us back to the heyday of the railways and, as we approached the viaduct, the lady with the buffet trolley gave us a running commentary of what we would see and the history of it all which really added to it. What a great start!
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| Hadrian's Wall path starts here! |
We had just a short walk from the train station in Carlisle to the coach station for the local bus to Bowness. They only run every 2 hours so our train times were picked to give us half an hour gap before the bus at 4:30pm (thanks Tim, who gave us that advice). It was there that we met the two ladies also hiking Hadrian's Wall for their charity Action on Asbestosis, after one of them lost her partner to it in 2021. I guess we'll be bumping into them a few times on the walk as they had booked the same accommodation at three of our nights. We got to Bowness, a very small town, right on the Eden estuary and walked the few meters to our first nights accommodation, The
Shoregate BnB. A very nice place, owned by a very friendly couple, particularly as they had left a bottle of Prosecco in our room for our anniversary and a room with a fabulous view over the Solway to Scotland in the distance. Not quite so good was that they had only reserved one room for us, not two as I'd asked for and acknowledged by them. It wasn't a problem, they just needed 10 minutes to get the other room prepared, although I think he was in trouble as we saw him in the pub later. A meal and couple of beers in the Kings Arms at the other end of the village, 100m away and it was there we picked up our passports that needed seven stamps at various points along the walk in order to apply for our certificates after completion. We were back at the BnBb and in bed by 10:00pm
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| Getting our first stamp in our passports |
Day 1 - 23.75km, 95m ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here):
Today we were walking from Bowness back to Carlisle, the route we had taken by bus the previous afternoon. In fact we had passed our BnB in Carlisle on the bus, so it was feeling a bit contrived to walk back, but it had to be done if we were to claim we'd done the whole route, something that we were so pedantic about that we even took to climbing over a stile even if there was an open gate alongside, if that's what the arrow and acorn sign indicated. Every step of the official route was going to be walked - I only wish Jackie agreed!
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| Following the Hadrian's Wall signposts and it's little white acorn symbol |
We got into our routine very early, awake at 7:00am, coffee/tea in bed, catch up with emails etc, down to breakfast with Si and Di at 8:00am, back to our rooms around 8:40am to pack rucksacks for the day and meet at reception at 9:00am to set off. It was virtually unchanged for the whole trip.
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| The old harbour wall of Port of Carlisle, once an important port |
Today the weather was dry but with a strong easterly wind, so we'll be walking straight into the wind all day. So much for walking West to East to have the wind on our backs! We found the official start, stamped our passports and set off into the wind. This part is flat, next to the Solway (estuary of the river Eden) so the wind blew straight at us most of the time, only sheltered on the occasions we walked through trees. It felt quite wild and remote here, particularly when two cows who'd escaped from their field wandered across the narrow road. Just throw yours arms up, make yourself big and they'll back off. They did and we herded them back down the lane towards their field so passing traffic won't get in their way. It seemed to go on a long way today, we passed a statue of King Edward I, who died in Burgh by Sands on his way to fight Robert the Bruce, had lunch, bought on the way, in a churchyard and eventually got to the point where we had to leave the official track and head to our BnB. It should only have been a short half mile or so walk through some woods, but our route was blocked halfway along ready for some development so we had to backtrack a bit and take a much longer detour along roads to get to the
Vallum House BnB - grumbling from Jackie!
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| Lunch in the churchyard at Burgh-by-Sands |
It was a nice place, even better when we found they offered an evening meal and had a bar on site, negating the need to walk out to the only very average pub nearby. Another couple of beers, some good laughs and we were again in bed by 10:00pm feeling tired. At least tomorrow we'll be breaking new ground.
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| Walking alongside the River Eden as we approached Carlisle |
Day 2 - Carlisle to Walton 23.22km, 124m ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here):
Different day, same routine, wake at 7:00am (check the weather forecast - low wind - good), breakfast at 8:00am, packed and ready to go at 9:00am. We backtracked on our deviation back to the official track and Jackie spotted that, at one point there was probably a shortcut back to the track, but that would mean missing 100m or so of the official track so we can't do that. Jackie considered taking it and waiting for us, but decided to walk with us.
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| Back where we left off last night, on Hadrian's Wall path |
The first part took us across country to the banks of the Eden river, past Carlisle castle and a stop at
Sands Leisure Centre where we got our second stamp in our passports. They also had a cafe, so it would seem rude not to stop and have a drink and cake! We carried on over a bridge on the River Eden (England's only northerly flowing river Simon told me), through another park and out into countryside passing over the M6 motorway, eventually arriving at our accommodation for the night,
Florries on the Wall Bunkhouse, a very posh bunkhouse it has to be said and very friendly owners, We had a room for four with en-suite, two bunks, Simon and I were predictably on the top bunks. The name gives it away, it was on the path so no deviation was necessary. Day 2 is usually a tough day as the body is complaining about having to walk day after day, so feet, knees and legs were aching. An evening meal on site along with a couple of bottled beers another good laugh and in bed again by 10:00pm
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| Heading towards Walton andd our accommodation Florries on the Wall |
Day 3 - Walton to Gilsland 16.42km, 226m ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here):
Today is Coronation Day, 6th May, we might catch up with it later at our accommodation in Gilsland, the very nice Dacre House, our favourite (and most expensive) on the whole walk. It was a shorter day and, I thought might be a bit easier, but I found it quite tough going. My body was definitely complaining about all this walking every day, things were aching! We had to make a detour today, Lanercost Priory was a mile or so off track, but was built in 11th century from stones from the wall. Lovely old building, destroyed by Henry VIII's men in the dissolution of the monasteries, but part of it had been restored to a church, so we could go in and have a look and get a feel for how it used to look when the ruined part was part of the whole.
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| Our first view of the wall at Hare Hill |
The walk back offered a shortcut back to the official route and Jackie decided to take that, the three of us walking back to where we'd left the track, meeting Jackie at the top. On the way, she told us she had done sheep rescue. She saw a sheep with horns with it's head stuck through a wire mesh fence with baby lamb standing by wondering what was going on. Mum sheep couldn't retract it's head due to its horns so Jackie helped it out, after which it ran away with its little lamb in hot pursuit. We saw our first bit of wall today at Hare Hill. Really nice to finally see a bit, even though it was fairly small. The noticeboard speculated that it might have survived the Priory building as it may have been part of a building that was later demolished. Further on, more sections, turrets lookout towers and the remains of a huge fort at Birdoswald. As we approached the cafe the heavens opened, but our timing meant we missed the worst while enjoying tea and coronation cake. It rained for a long time, however, so we had to set off again in light rain. Just past there the wall used to cross the river Irthling at Willowford, but over the years the river has changed course by 20 or so meters, destroying the wall in that place and leaving the old bridge abutments high and dry. Quite interesting to be able to walk round what used to be a river bed, now quite high (several meters) above the river some distance away,
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| Lanercost Priory, built using stone from the wall |
Finally we got to Gilsland and
Dacre House, quite wet and quite early, around 2:30pm, having deviated slightly off the path by another long section of wall, but they let us in and we could chill out and catch up on some of the coronation in our lovely room, before going down to a fabulous evening meal more local bottled beer and good laughs. Glad to get to bed around 10:00pm and slept soundly!
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| The old bridge abutments, now high and dry, that used to take the wall over the River Irthling |
Day 4 - Gilsland to Once Brewed 16.97km, 336m ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here)
We'd put our wet clothes into their drying area at Dacre House, which had dried, except Jackie's shoes. Some kind (thoughtless) fellow walker had put his dripping coat on a hook above Jackie's shoes without thinking to move them. Dripping all night left her shoes quite wet on the inside, which a hairdryer in our room partially dried before we had to set off again.
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| Simons in Northumberland, I'm in Cumbria, but we're both in the town of Gilsland |
Gilsland seems to be divided into two counties, the Western part in Cumbria, the Eastern part in Nortrhumberland. Dacre House was actually in Northumberland so we crossed back into Cumbria again to pick up the path where we'd left off, crossing back into Northumberland again further on.
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| Thirlwall Castle, long abandoned but built from stones from the wall |
After fort and wall remains the wall disappeared for a while and there, on the hill, was the remains of
Thirlwall Castle, built in the early 14th century using stones from the wall. That's why there's no sign of the wall then! Interesting side visit, just up a short hill from the path, so Jackie came along too. Brief chats with other HW walkers before heading off to a cafe stop at
Walltown Quarry Park. It was probably here that some of the stone was quarried for the wall, so much of the lower part of the wall remains as it rises up over the hills, really showing for the first time what an impressive achievement building this wall was in these ancient times. It was here that Jackie did mouse rescue. A little field mouse was lost in the middle of the gravel road into the car park, just where it would be run over by a car, so Jackie picked it up and put it back onto grass, getting small bites from a very frightened little mouse on the way. Drinks in the cafe and then our ascent started. Not a huge ascent, but enough to take us high to get fabulous views of the wall and fabulous countryside. This is what walking the wall is all about. The sun was shining, the wind low and the views superb!
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| Jackie does mouse rescue |
So much of the wall to see today in all it's splendor, it really is so worth it, what a day! Further on we had another cafe stop at
Cawfield Quarry, where the scouts had set up a refreshment stop in this very scenic place. Simon donned his scout cap (he's a scout leader don't you know!) and we bought some cake and drinks, Simon talking to the locals about scout things - we left him to it! As we walked on, the wall rose up over the quarry (probably another source of wall stone) to the high ground for really fabulous views. There, at one point, the wall vanished as quarrying had continued after the Roman occupation, taking a big chunk out leaving a drop of 40 or 50m and a little scenic lake, all now beautifully landscaped and grassed. We walked round the 'new' gap, picked up the wall again and finished above the small settlement of Once Brewed at our highest point with a trig point at 350m near
Steel Rigg. Down below we could see our accommodation for the night,
Twice Brewed Inn, just a short walk to a viewpoint at Steel Rigg then a deviation downhill to Once Brewed and a stop at Sill visitor centre for more tea and cake. We sat outside, enjoyed the view and rested our tired feet. Tomorrow the forecast looks grim, but it might not be that bad, it's so nice today! Lots of very nice local beer on tap here, great food, great chat and a sound nights sleep (once the kitchen extractor, that vented next to our bedroom window, stopped at 9:00pm)
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| The wall used to cross this area, but subsequent quarrying a very scenic but huge gash |
Day 5 - Once Brewed to Chollerford 20.89km, 260m of ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here)
A big day! This, apparently is the most popular section of the wall walk. Lots of wall to see, expansive views from the tops and easily accessible by bus and car for those on day trips. What was not quite so good, however, was the weather: it was as grim as the forecast, rain and dull. This took Jackie over the edge, this section was accessible by bus, so that's the way she was going! Google Maps didn't show any available busses, but she had spoken to reception who told her there is a special bus serving the wall, the AD122 (that's a special date in the Roman calendar, the year Hadrian started his wall!). We set off in the rain, she stayed in the warm, spent a couple of hours in the Sill visitor centre, caught the bus to Chollerford and relaxed in the lovely lounge of the elegant, but slightly tired George Hotel in Chollerford, passing us in the bus. We waved at her and the bus driver stopped thinking we wanted a lift. Jackie put him right and he carried on.
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| Brian and Simon on a very scenic part of the wall |
Before that though, the three of us set off in the rain, retracing our steps back up the road to the path continuation at Steel Rigg. It was reasonably heavy rain, rivers of water running down the road and, once we left the road, very boggy, wet ground. Boggy ground was a feature of the day, lots of it, most often at stiles or gates where people and cattle gather. Would boots have been better than approach shoes? Possibly, but careful placing of feet often missed the worst of it, until really wide sections of endless bog or rivers of water made it unavoidable. Thank heavens for my waterproof trousers and new Gortex rain jacket. After a while we got into a rhythm and hardly noticed the rain as we climbed up onto the ridge next to huge sections of the wall. It was magnificent scenery despite the weather, which eased, stopped and started again. We could see why this section is popular,
Housesteads has the remains of a huge fort and the wall was almost unbroken in this area, up high with superb views. There is even a section of wall here where a public right of way exists on top of the wall, the only place you can legally walk on the entire wall. When we arrived at this bit, steps led up to the top of the wall, but as they are trying to discourage walking on the wall, they have built a very nice gravel path alongside through the trees. 'Just because you can walk on it, doesn't mean you have to' Di said in her best schoolmistress voice. She's right, of course, so we took the path feeling just like children!
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| Walking in the rain from Once Brewed |
Houseteads fort is our third stamp point for our passports so we made our way down to the visitor centre. The site is owned by English Heritage and they have a £12.50 entrance fee to look round a tiny museum and enter the fort, of which you can see most of from outside. Now, it might be me, but these ruins have been here for nearly 2000 years, unprotected and open to the elements. English Heritage seemed to have taken ownership of all these forts, have fenced them in and are charging this sort of figure at each one. They will say there is an upkeep to pay for but, really? When I was young I remember visiting Stonehenge with my parents and, at that time it was just open. We parked the car and just walked round them, but now English Heritage own it, have fenced it off and now charge something like £25 entrance. Who's right is it to take ownership of these previously open, public sites, fence them off and charge an entrance fee? Thirlwall Castle, for example, is not owned by English Heritage is open and free and apparently not suffering from any further degredation.
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| The wall stretches off into the distance |
Anyway, I've had my grumble, it was raining, we were tired, so didn't bother going round it. We did need the stamp in our passports though, so we asked the lady behind the desk where it was. It's outside in a wooden box she told us. Outside in the rain there it was. Difficult to stamp our passports in the rain without getting them wet. I picked up the whole box and carried it inside the centre. 'Can we do this inside' we asked her. I suppose so, she grudgingly replied. Passports stamped we headed off back over the boggy field, back onto the track and on. Still great views and long sections of wall as we headed downhill to the military road along which Jackie would be coming in the bus. I phoned her, found out where her bus was, about 3 minutes away, so sat on the wall waiting. We saw it coming in the distance and waved as she came by, laughing and waving the bus on when we saw him stopping.
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| It might be raining, but we're still smiling |
The latter part of the walk became just a walk near the road along grassy paths where the wall used to be, with a ditch alongside. The Roman word for ditch is Vallum so I wanted to use that word rather than ditch. Unfortunately, on one of my Facebook posts, autocorrect had changed 'ditch' for 'Dutch' and I hadn't noticed until Si and Di had pointed it out when I went and corrected it. So after that ditch was referred to as Dutch!
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| Here comes Jackies bus for us to wave at |
This part of the walk seemed to go on a long time, with not that much to see, but at least the rain had stopped. Eventually we got to the village of Walwick, not far from our destination and walked on pavements by the side of roads. Turning onto a straight main road with a narrow pavement with cars hurtling past we strode on, feet aching. We passed another fort just before Chollerford,
Chesters Roman fort (also owned by English Heritage - guess the entrance price?). Shall we go in? No, we're really tired and just want to get to our hotel, it was only half a mile or so. A little further on Jackie appeared walking towards us. She'll have looked at my position on the Life360 app that we have that enables each of us to see where the other is. Although she'd checked into the room, just outside was a cafe, so we headed in there first for tea and cake before walking the last 30m to the hotel and a hot shower!
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| Nearing Chollerford and still finding sections of wall |
A lovely, but tired hotel fed us and we drank nice hand pulled ales and laughed the evening away.
Day 6: Chollerford to East Wallhouses 16.06km, 241m ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here)
This section we'd split into two. A lot of people, including the two ladies we'd met several times raising money for Action on Asbestosis were doing this leg in one, walking on past East Wallhouses onto Heddon on the Wall, making it a long day. Why do that, we thought, when we're not in a rush and there's a very nice hotel at East Wallhouses?
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| Finding our way through a wood |
Our shorter day started much like the others, awake at 7:00am, breakfast at 8:00am, off at 9:00am. We had just one problem, we'd spotted that we needed a stamp in our passports at Chesters Roman fort, the place we'd walked past on the previous day, half a mile back along the road, so Si and I set off without rucksacks to get our stamp. Unfortunately the fort didn't open until 10:00am and it was only just past 9:00am! Oh no! Wondering what to do a car pulled into the car park and the old chap driving told us it didn't open until 10:00am. 'We know', we said 'we only want a stamp in our passports'. Give me two minutes to open up and I'll bring it out to you. What a star! Perhaps I prejudged English Heritage! His daughter told us there is a stamp at the gate, 'but it's hard to see' she told us. 'I bet you're just saying that to make us feel better' I said, but when we walked back out we did see it, hidden behind a sign, so she was right. So passports stamped, rucksacks gathered we set off into a pleasant day, which remained dry and reasonably sunny. Not a startling day, grassy fields, often not far from the road, but it was pleasant enough with only a couple of hills to climb. Jackie had to walk with us today, the AD122 bus didn't go that far and there was no other transport option other than a taxi (she did consider that, but decided against it).
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| Lunch at the Errington Coffee House |
Nothing much to report today, we crossed over the A68 at a roundabout and stopped at the Errington Coffee House for lunch and drinks, a place Si and Di knew well from many previous travels south when they lived in Edinburgh. They relayed the story where Si had to give first aid to a woman who missed a step and fell into a fire surround in there cutting her head. He got shouted at by her son and fobbed off by the cafe owner when he suggested signage warning of the step or a guard round the fireplace might be a good idea. We sat outside! The people who served us were lovely people so their newer experience was much better than their last one we hope. Our two ladies appeared also stopping for tea, but left before us, we still lounging outside. Well, they do have a much bigger day than us after all.
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| Another field, another set of steps to negotiate |
We headed off arriving reasonably at the lovely
Robin Hood Inn mid afternoon, went straight into the bar and had a beer. Sometime later our two ladies appeared for lunch which they ate and hurried on. Assuming we wouldn't see them again we took a note of their charity to make a donation. Excellent food in the restaurant/bar that evening, more good laughs and, again, slept soundly.
Day 7: (are you bored yet?) East Wallhouses to Newburn 16.57km, 128m ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here)
Another pleasant day of walking through fields with only the faintest hint of a wall or ditch. Heddon on the Wall had a section that we went to look at but, other than that, just a country walk. We passed over the A69, which I mistook for the A1, a fact Simon pointed out when I made my daily Facebook post, he didn't let me forget that one! Arriving near Newburn, our hotel, The Keelman Lodge with Big Lamp Brewery (I'm looking forward to this!) was straight along a lane, but our track deviated down to the Tyne River for a very pleasant final walk to our hotel, Si and Di stopping at a nearby cafe, us continuing on to check in and have a beer.
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| Very jolly Hadrian's Wall workers. Someone has to do it |
A pleasant evening there, nice food served by an elderly woman who did everything we asked, but you wouldn't cross her, she was very, lets say, authoritative!
Day 8: Newburn to Wallsend 22.38km, 130m ascent (see our short Relive video with photos: click here)
Today was a lovely walk along the banks of the River Tyne through central Newcastle-on-Tyne. A longish walk, but full of views of this great city. Jackie, however, had spotted a bus service so that was what she was going to do. We left her lounging in the accommodation to catch her bus to the Dorset Arms Hotel, our final night stay in Wallsend (it's the end of Hadrian's Wall, so what better name for it?).
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| Leaving the Keelman Lodge and Big Lamp Brewery |
The three of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, taking loads of photos of iconic sights in the city, the
Tyne Bridge,
Millennium Bridge, the old Fishmarket and the modern
Sage Gateshead building on the other side of the river. We got a bit lost at one point, but retraced our steps a couple of times to find the now called 'Hadrian's Way' rather than Hadrian's Wall. That's because nothing remains of the wall other than 'site of' marks on a map. About 10 minutes walk from the end of the walk at the
Segedunum Fort I phoned Jackie to ask if she'd like to walk down from the hotel to meet us. 'Yes' she said. We finally arrived, walking into the car park as Jackie arrived in a car driven by the hotel owners. 'They are lovely people' she said 'but quite eccentric', though they had fed her spaghetti bolognese and made a room available to her early. We have just one more thing to do before going into the fort and that is to find the site of Milecastle 0 which, according to a historian was the original start of the wall before the fort was built. I'd marked it on my map, so we walked to the spot to find... nothing! Nonetheless a photo was taken at this possible site and we returned to the fort (owned by English Heritage - guess the entrance fee?), had a quick look then headed into town to find a cafe. We were recommended one by a woman we accosted in the street 'mention my name' she said, we did (we've forgotten it now), which raised a smile from the owner and had....tea and cake for a change!
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| At the finish line! |
Finally walked up to our hotel and confirmed Jackie's view that the owners were full of fun, very, very helpful and quite eccentric. The Hindu god statue in our room and very elegant antique style chair confirmed this. They didn't do food so we needed to go out. The nearest place, a Weatherspoons was a mile away, but when we mentioned it to our man he told us not to go there, go to Tynemouth he said. OK, we'll get a taxi. No need for that he said, I'll take you. How splendid! We'd like a curry we said. 'I know just the place'. Off we went, 'there it is', he said, 'oh its not an Indian anymore!' You could try Gulshan' he said. That's fine, but we'll go for a drink first. He dropped us off, we were directed to the Turks Head that had 8 hand pulled ales one. A couple in there an Indian in Gulshan and we had a fabulous last evening out.
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| Segedunum Museum |
Day 9: Wallsend to South Shields 12.64km, 76.8m ascent (see our short Relive videos (there are two of them as I stopped it while on the ferry): click here, and here)
The official walk had finished, but we wanted to walk the final bit out to the North Sea at South Shields so we could complete a coast to coast. We walked back to the Segedunum Fort then followed Cycle Route 72, named Hadrian's Cycleway (didn't know Hadrian had a bike, perhaps it should have been Hadrian's Chariotway) out to the Tyne ferry, crossed the river then walked the final section to the Arbeia Roman Fort and then out to the sea. Arbeia Fort is not owned by English Heritage, so it was free to go in and they'd even rebuilt the Westgate entrance to this huge site to get a feel for how it might have looked. It had disappeared beneath a housing estate many years ago but, in the 1950's the houses were demolished and the original Roman fort foundations unearthed. Quite interesting.
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| Hadrian's Cycleway, who knew? Should be Hadrian's Chariotway |
A final walk to the coast, a few photos and congratulations and we walked into South Shields, stopped at a cafe, caught the Metro to Newcastle station, walked to the coach station, had a meal and caught the bus to Leeds.
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| Over the Tyne on the ferry |
A final local bus back to Harrogate we walked back to Si and Di's from the bus stop, which seemed fitting to arrive back on foot after leaving on foot. A final takeaway meal at their house, a beer and to bed. Early start as we had a long drive back and they had a meeting to go to, it was the end of another great adventure. Here's to the next one!
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| Arriving at the Arbeia Fort in South Shields |
Did you make it to the end? Well done if you did!
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| The final destination at the coast in South Shields, 108 miles of walking later. Are we happy? The photo says it all! |
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| The long journey home, here's our Metro train from South Shields.... |
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