Day 1
After my experience walking the Coast-to-Coast walk in 2018, I knew I wanted to do more walks in England. I had long had my eye on Hadrian’s Wall as my next excursion and now embarking on that adventure. I decided to walk the path from east to west despite the fact that most people walk in the other direction-usually starting in Bowens-on-Solway and finishing in Newcastle. My hike started in Newcastle however and I arrived a day early to have an extra day to explore the city. Instead of saying in the city center, I booked lodgings in Tynemouth on the coast. To keep things simple, I used the same company to plan the logistics for my Hadrian’s Wall trek as I did for the England Coast to Coast walk- Mickeldore. All I had to do was tell them how many days I wanted to take to hike the whole route, the number and location of any rest days I might want and they took care of allThe bookings, moved my luggage everyday and provided a packed lunch.

Tynemouth was easy to get to using the Newcastle metro and turned out to be a small, but vibrant village. The ruins of a large monastery, on the site of an even earlier Roman fort, on the coast a block away from my lodgings were my first stop after dropping my stuff off. The main priory was the largest structure still intact, followed by the gatehouse. I sat on a bench to enjoy the day and watched with amusement as three teenagers, with helmets, small shields and wooden swords re-enacted a medieval sword fight. Maybe they were filming for social media? After exploring for an hour, I found a place to grab a bite and retired to my room for the rest of the day.

The priory ruins at the monastery in Tynemouth.

The next morning I took the metro to the city center and visited the Great Northern Museum near Newcastle University which hosts a nice exhibit on Hadrian’s wall. Since it was a Saturday, there were loads of families and kids at the museum so I did not linger after perusing the exhibit on the Wall. I headed south through the city center for a visit to the remnants of the Newcastle castle which sits on the site of yet another Roman fort. The castle keep is still intact and I roamed around all the different floors, exploring the nooks and crannies, trying to image what it would have been like to live there. The castle walls are also still intact in some places, including a couple of the gates, so standing on the roof of the keep, I could see how the grounds might have looked in the 1200’s when the castle was occupied. Leaving the castle keep I headed through the still exiting river gate in the walls to the old town adjacent to the river, winding through streets with long-standing pubs and more modern cocktail bars and restaurants. Clearly this was the place to be—I lost count of the number of bridal parties and birthday groups out celebrating, even though it was only late afternoon. I imagine this area is super active at night!

Newcastle castle Keep. Still intact and super interesting to wander around in and imagine what it might have been like to live there!

I stopped in to an Italian restaurant to grab an early dinner/late lunch then headed back to Tynemouth to prepare for the next day.
After a small breakfast I left my tagged luggage in the hallway of the B&B and headed out. I would meet up with my bag at my stop for the night some 12 miles distant. The Hadrian’s Wall walk actually starts in Wallsend, a metro stop about halfway from Tynemouth to the City Center so I took the metro to the Wallsend station and consulting the detailed map provided me by Mickeldore, easily found the path. The start (or end if you are walking west to east) of the trail was adjacent a site of an old Roman Fort the Segedunum. The site mainly illustrates the foundations and layout of the fort; nothing remains of the structures themselves.

The path was well marked and served double duty as a bike/walking corridor for the community. Because it was such a nice day, cloudy but not cold, lots of people were out biking and walking. After nearly two hours of walking through a peaceful corridor of green along the river, I reached the city center. The crowds increased and I found a Sunday market along the waterfront in the old town. I slowed my pace and spent some time browsing, the food stalls especially tempting, but I breakfast was not too far in my past and my lunch was in my backpack so I resisted the temptation to try any of the food. Leaving the city center, still walking along the river, I continued to encounter locals out strolling for another hour or so, bikers for another two. After walking for three hours, I stopped at a bench overlooking the river and broke out my pack lunch, indulging in a short rest.

After lunch I continued to follow the trail, which more or less remained next to the river, until Newburn. At the Newburn bridge I turned south to cross the river and walk to the B&B I was staying at, about 1.5 miles distant. After six hours of walking, I closed out my first day on the trail and looked forward to the next day and my first encounter with remnants of the wall.

The path near Newcastle. Nicely paved and used by locals as a walking/biking path.

Day 2
I got lucky with another nice day – only partly cloudy leaving blue skies and white puffy. I headed out around 9am retracing the1.5 miles from th B&B back to the trail to start the day’s 11 mile trek to my next stop. The path continued to closely parallel the river affording me the opportunity to watch the Newcastle University rowing team practicing. This part of the trail was well used – locals out walking, some with strollers, many with dogs, as well as bicyclists, singles and groups. After a couple hours of walking, that included my first hill climb (no where near as tough as New Zealand!) I was at Heddon-on-the-Wall. I love the names of English villages— many are nothing more than geographical descriptions. In this particular case, the small village of Heddon, sits adjacent to one of the few intact sections of Hadrian’s Wall (hence the name). The village, perched on a hill that afforded a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside, consisted of some very old buildings, still used as homes, and some modern construction. The village (population 1300ish) consisted, besides the residences, of a pub (inevitably) and a church and a school. The longest contiguous remains of Hadrian’s Wall, 220 meters long, sits just east of the center of the village in a field and I stopped by to take it in. The section, including the foundation stones, varies in height from three feet to ground level and I walked the length, looking at the construction technique and trying to image what it must have looked like when it was built (nearly 2000 years ago!). It’s amazing, really, that the original stones are still intact and haven’t been cannibalized for construction during the ensuing two centuries (which is what happened elsewhere along the wall).

Leaving Heddon-on-the-Wall, the path entered farmers’ fields, generally following the course of Military Road. The modern day Military Road follows the original path of the road that stretched along the south side of Hadrian’s Wall for use by, well, the Roman military (English names!). England has a public right of way law so it is not unusual to be on a major trekking path and find yourself marching through a cow and sheep pastures or agricultural fields and I found myself skirting cows and startling sheep for motor the day. Luckily the cows seemed used to random people walking by them and merely watched with no reaction.

Hadrian Wall ruins in a field. Remains of the wall appear and disappear throughout the route.

Throughout the day I passed several groups Hadrian Wall trekkers walking east. I rarely overtake (or was overtaken) by hikers heading west like me, although I saw one couple who were walking west and when I sat down for lunch at the top of another hill at Harlow. My lunch spot had a great view; the green rolling hills of north England unfurling in front of me, interrupted by the silver ribbon that was the river Tyne. The English countryside appeared very neat and tidy, postage stamps of various shades of green plowed fields, sometimes spotted with riots of wildflowers, broken by tree lines or stone walls. I never grow tired of the scenery when I am walking through the English countryside!

I had a late lunch so it only took me another hour or so of walking to reach my stopping point in East Wallsford. I checked in, stretched (mandatory), showered, reviewed my next day’s path and wandered over the adjoining pub for dinner- a nice relaxing way to end the day!

Day 3
Since Robin Hood’s Inn, my evening stopping point was right on the trail, I had an easy start for today’s hike – simply walk out the door and turn west. My goal for the day was 11 miles away in Chollford. It was another nice day with partly sunny skies and little wind; a great day for a long walk. The theme for the day turned out to be “stiles” because for most of the day I was walking through fields. Crossing from one field to another required navigating through stiles set in the wall. Gates were generally locked (I was told by my B&B host later that evening that people were not closing the gates, so the stiles were created to avoid that problem). The walk was scenic but the only remains of Roman construction that were visible along the route was not the actual wall itself, but rather the large ditch that the Romans had built along the north side of the wall. In several sections of the walk the wide, deep ditch still existed and it looked formidable, especially considering anyone trying to cross it in the Roman times would have archers poised to fire at them from the wall.

Another view of the wall emerging in a field.

I arrived in Chollford in the early afternoon and decided to stop at the local pub, the George, to have a pint of Guinness before walking up the hill to the village of Humshaugh where my evening lodgings were. My timing was perfect because while I sat in the pub relaxing a short, but strong rain shower moved through the area— but I was inside and remained dry!

Day 4
I was not in a hurry to get started today because I wanted to visit Chester’s Fort before heading further west and the ticket office did not open until 10am. The landlady at the Orchard Inn B&B, my evening’s accommodation, suggested an alternate route to get to the fort— the “high road” that led through the village and then down to the river, as opposed to hiking back down the the George and heading west on the military road. I took her suggestion as it gave me an opportunity to wander through the small village and a less-well traveled part of the English countryside. It was a lovely walk and as I passed the several hundred year old homes, I tried to image I was back in regency England and what life would have been like.

Ruins of the Roman bathhouse at Chester’s fort. They had dry saunas and steam rooms and a cold plunge pool. Very elaborate.

Chester’s Fort, which sits on the River Tyne and built bisecting the wall (with gates north and south of the wall) was excavated by John Clayton. Actually much of the preserved sections of the wall are due to his enthusiasm and dedication to unearthing Roman artifacts in north England. Chester’s Fort emerged after he started poking around some ruins in his backyard; he kept excavating, everywhere after that. Today it is possible to see the layout and foundations of the fort’s buildings, including an incredibly intact bathhouse, and gain an understanding of what a typical wall fort looked like. There is also a small museum that contains many of the artifacts that he found while excavating. I spent an hour there, wandering around and exploring the different buildings before heading back out to the trail. I had eight miles to go and a pick up at 3:00 to meet.

The weather was generally nice, but occasionally a random cloud would wander by with a light sprinkle and I spent time along the walk putting on and removing my rain pants. The wind was fairly strong out of the west so I kept my rain jacket on most of the day as a wind break. I did discover an advantage of walking west, even though I faced the wind – I walked through rainstorms, not along with them (they were moving west to east)! I was definitely leaving the coastal region behind as the trail started to ascend, although in a measured way. Like the day before, I was walking through fields, with occasional interludes through small groups of trees. The trail still paralleled the military road in the distance, and usually ran adjacent to modern stone walls that separated pastures. At Grindon, noted by the location of an old schoolhouse and less than a dozen buildings, I turned off the path and went to the schoolhouse to wait for the taxi that would take me to Haydon Bridge where my B&B was located.

St. Oswald’s church dating back to the 800’s and still in use. Unfortunately it was closed when I passed by and I could not go in to explore.

Day 5
My luck finally ran out— the weather forecast for the day predicted 100% rain so I mentally fortified myself for a wet day. Fortunately, I only had about six miles to cover so my soggy trek would be short. I deliberately planned to keep the daily segments short for this section of the wall because there are many ruins and interesting features through the center of the hike and I did not want to feel rushed. Thus, my goal for the day was a pub/inn six miles distant, slightly off the trail called Twice-Bewed and I was spending an extra day there so that I had time the following day to hike to the nearby ruins of Vindalandia, a must-see archeological site.

The taxi driver was back at 9:00am to deliver me back to the Old Grindon Schoolhouse where he had picked me up the day before so I could start where I ended the previous day. I was in full rain gear—rain pants and jacket and backpack cover. In reserve I had a rain poncho but was hoping the rain did not get bad enough to need it. Luckily, even though the sky was overcast and the morning grey and dull, I only had to endure a steady light sprinkle for most of the day, so the poncho was not required.

Passing by an old turret in the wall. Random features dot the wall all along the path.

I joined the trail and turned west, following the path of the wall. Emerging from a small copse of woods, the trail continued into the fields, like the day before, but today I was walking along ruins of the original wall. They were extensive and I shared my experience with many of the sheep who were climbing on and around the wall. Also along the route were several well-preserved milestone forts, typically housing the small contingent of soldiers who had been stationed periodically along the wall. Eventually, after about an hour or so on the trail, I started encountering people walking east, including several groups of students. It was easy to pick out who were British and who were not based on their attire— the light rain did not appear be an issue for the natives (as opposed to those of us buried in rain gear…).

The fort at Housestead has been excavated and it is possible to see the foundations, similar to Chester’s Fort. Unfortunately, the ticket office was closed (no one seemed to know why) and so I did not linger. After passing Housestead the trail started to become very hilly and steep, both up an down, which required care as the ground was slippery. There were stones placed as pseudo-steps in many instances, but those were also slick so I proceeded with caution. It seemed that most of the morning was spent either climbing down into or climbing up out of a ravine. In addition, this are of the wall was constructed on a high ridge (great views, but probably better without the rain) and I cannot image what it took to build the wall along these steep inclines and dips. The rain came and went but it remained, at most, a light sprinkle or a dense mist – even so after hours of trekking I was fairly saturated!

An example of one of the barracks found along the wall (doors both north and south) where small groups of soldiers maintained watch.

View showing some of the steep ravines the wall (and hence the path) climbs into and out of. Tricky in the rain!

One of the most famous parts of the Hadrian’s Wall trail was on this segment, the “sycamore gap” where up until a few years ago, when a couple of idiots vandalized the tree, a 300-year-old sycamore tree bridged a gap in the wall. The two vandals, who cut the tree down, are serving four years in jail and thankfully the tree is trying to grow back. I noticed as I reached this area of the trail that a lot of people were day hiking from Twice-Brewed (where I was heading) and despite the weather the trail was crowded. The steep inclines and descents continued, but now with more traffic, until I reached the road diversion to the pub/inn; I was more than looking forward to a hot shower and dry clothes!

The stump of the vandalized (cut down!) 300 year old sycamore tree that guarded this gap in the wall. You can see small shoots, so hundreds of years from now, perhaps it will be back….