Walked the Wall?
Any wise words for those thinking of following in your footsteps?
Photograph by Joan Thirlaway
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Any wise words for those thinking of following in your footsteps?
Photograph by Joan Thirlaway
4 comments:
My son and I walked the entire Wall February 3-9 and had a lovely time. It was the only time of the year we both could go and we would do it again in late winter: The solitude more than offset the somewhat challenging weather for part of the time. We had several wonderful, sunny days, a couple of marginal ones and two windy, cold and snowy ones. The later were really no problem as we had adequate, technical gear that kept us quite comfortable. We did not "curse the storms but rather danced in the snow!" We walked west to east thinking that having the wind to our back would help. But there was an east wind every day, the guide book details are set up for an east to west trek and we finished in industrial New Castle rather than the more pleasant, rural Bowness area. So, we would walk from East to West and deal with any adverse winds.
We walked east to west in five days - which is challenging - August 2007. Although we had a mega day of 21 miles from Grindon to Gilsland, it was definitely a great day. We really liked Henry Stedman's Trailblazer Guide which combines excellent sketch maps, useful info and humour. For two 40+ woman "Henry" beame a friend who walked about the same speed as us and knew where all the teashops were (as well as all the pubs)!
To anyone planning to walk Hadrian’s Wall:
If you decide, as we did, to use both the excellent ‘AD122’ bus service and your own vehicle to travel to and from each day’s walk, you might like to consider having three accommodation ‘base camps.’ Obviously, there is plenty on offer either end, i.e. Newcastle/Gateshead and Carlisle, but the one in the middle needs careful consideration! We opted for Willowford Farm from its description on the internet, even though we knew nothing about the place.
We couldn’t have made a better choice! If you want to sleep right on the line of the wall, in a comfortable bed with first rate food available, you couldn’t do better! Our room even had a genuine Roman inscription on it. Liam and Lauren were friendly and obliging, and even offered to take us the short distance to the bus stop in the village. We stayed with them for three nights –
we should have made it four - during which we walked from Port Gate (the Errington Arms) to Gilsland.
Since the plan was to celebrate my becoming an Old Age Pensioner, we had no ambition to break any records, only to enjoy the experience. Consequently, we tried to plan a reasonable walk each day, with time to stop, where appropriate. Our record is below. If you have a similar point of view, you would enjoy Gilsland, and especially Willowford Farm. We are sure that Millie the dog would enjoy a game with you, too!
One word of caution, if you also decide to use the bus with Brampton as a staging point, the nearest point of the Walk – Newtown – is two and a half miles from the town! Like us, you might consider that a taxi ride is well worth the cost! Unlike us, you might be prepared by having the taxi firm’s number with you when you need the ride down from Newtown! Good walking and we hope the weather is as fine for you as it was for us – even the wind blew from the East throughout.
Day 1: Tynemouth to Millenium Bridge – 11 miles, (visited Segedunum)
Day 2: Millenium Bridge to Newburn – about 7 miles (shopping in
Newcastle!)
Day 3: Newburn to Robin Hood PH – about 8 miles,
Day 4: Robin Hood to Port Gate – only 6 miles (moved house, visited both Ikea and Corbridge!)
Day 5: Port Gate to Brocolitia – 9 miles (and visited Chesters!)
Day 6: Brocolitia to Steel Rigg – 9 hard miles!
Day 7: Steel Rigg to Gilsland – 10 miles,
Day 8: Gilsland to Newtown – 8 miles (plus two more down to Brampton!)
Day 9: Newtown to Carlisle – another good 9 miles, and finally
Day 10: Carlisle to Bowness-on-Solway – the final 14 (flatter) miles!
Hope this helps – best of luck,
Pat and Jim Goodliff.
We caught the AD122 bus from Gilsland along to Housesteads and walked back to Willowford from there, mostly along the Whin Sill escarpment, passing Crag Lough, Steel Rigg, Chesters Fort, Walltown, the Roman Army Museum at Carvoran and Thirlwall Castle. Took about 6 hours of walking.
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