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Hadrian's Wall

A good, long walk |

Having spent a long month in Orkney, Marianne and I decided to treat ourselves with a nice long walk. Travelling from Newcastle to Carlisle (two modern wonders of the world) along the fairly old Hadrian's Wall (not so impressive).

We travelled up to Newcastle on the Saturday and travelled out to Heddon-on-the-Wall (our first campsite) by bus. We could have walked, but the idea of a nice ramble through suburban Newcastle, for some reason, did not appeal.

On Sunday we walked from Heddon to Wall. Marianne was excited to get her first glimpse of Hadrian's Wall (until I pointed out that it was actually a mound of rotting hay and that she should really have put her contact lenses in that morning). When we did come across our first bit of (genuine) wall we were both jolly happy and many pictures were taken. Marianne was also impressed when I used my archaeological eye to suss out the ground plan of a Roman fort existing as shallow earthworks by the path.

The campsite at Wall was actually just the village green with a nearby public toilet for our convenience. We had to ask a nice local just what the arrangement was. Indeed this local was so nice that she volunteered to look after our heavy bags and drive us into Hexham so that we could visit the famous crypt of St Wilfrid. I was very happy. We bought the nice lady a small present and then settled down to another cosy night in the tent. I drifted off to dreams of Angles and Saxons and early monasticism.

From wall we made our way to Twice Brewed. This is the most famous part of the wall, where the wall is in its best state of repair. So we visited all the Roman nonsense (Housesteads, Chesters etc) before leaving the wall to visit Vindolanda. Why we did this I do not know. Had we stayed on the path we would have encountered the tree from the cinematic experience: Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Never mind, at least we didn't miss out on the Twicey, a great pub.

On the Tuesday we did some more walking, saw some more Roman stuff and got quite wet. So wet as it happened, that we lost all motivation to camp and booked ourselves into a nice B&B (Howard House Farm in Gilsland). For dinner we went to the local pub (I can't remember the name), and here I had a rabbit and black pudding pie. It was delicious, yum yum yum, made even tastier because the publican shot his own rabbits. Great.

From Gilsland we rambled on, taking in some lovely countryside, cutting through an angry farmer's field to reach Lanercost Priory. Before entering the site we decided to eat our packed lunch. However we had to choose our location carefully as the front field of the priory was the domain of 8 frisky rams. So, choosing a safe spot under a tree across the field from the sheep, we began nibbling. About 15 minutes later we had the shit scared out of us. So as to remain undetected, the sheep had skirted the outside of the field and crept up behind us to steal our sandwiches. Bastards.

Instead of walking past Carlisle Airport we got the bus into the city. Did a bit of shopping, visited the castle, and strolled out to our last campsite, to the west of the city.

The next day was our last as we walked the final leg to Bowness on Solway. On this leg we bumped into a chap from Scotland who had commendably done the whole walk (including the crap urban bits). He was a good walking companion as Marianne and I had become sick of each other's conversation and we were getting grouchy.

So we arrived at Bowness in time for the pub to open. We had a few beers then got the bus home. Good stuff.


Locations Visited: Newcastle upon Tyne, Hexham, Carlisle


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