Hadrians Wall Path - Day 3
Walton to Steel Rigg
The day ahead was yet to be revealed when we dragged ourselves out of our cozy bed. Looking over the misty valley from our vantage at the old vicarage we could see low cloud and the threat of rain. The forecast had um, forecast much the same so we prepared ourselves mentally for a day with a few curve balls.  |
| Leaving Walton |
I enjoyed yet another traditional English breakfast and Gloria tasted some lovely fresh fruit and yoghurt and granola for breakfast. The hosts at the old Vickerage are truly wonderful people and I recommend this accommodation.
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| Breakfast of champions |
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| Breakfast for losers |
Today was an early start and we were hiking by 7:45 AM and we know that today will be a big day. The terrain was quite a bit different too; initially more rolling hills trending towards hilly ascents and descents over the ridges. Previously the terrain has been quite flat. Today however gave us a bit of everything; a mix of walking on the road, alongside the road in a path, through farmers field and then mostly right beside the wall.
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| Our morning view |
When you’re walking, you have to be really careful of where you step not because of anything man-made, but because of the animals. To be fair we are hiking through their grazing lands but still, It’s treacherous. Probably the biggest danger are the big sloppy ones. Some of those cows need to see a vet.
Hare Hill
Hare Hill was probably our first significant piece of the wall that we have seen that is made of Stone. Apparently this section is the tallest remaining original wall segment. However, the overall section is quite short at only about five metres long. Much of the stone has been taken over the years to build other structures in the surrounding areas, most noticeably the Lanercost priory.
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| A glimpse of the wall |
Banks and Pike Hill turrets
Around the village of banks are several old Roman turrets and this is when we really started to feel the history of the place. The ruins themselves describe the perimeter of the existing buildings, and there is also some significant chunks of the original wall that you can walk across.
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| Starting to see some Of the ruins |
Birdoswald Roman site
One of the most significant attractions today was Birdoswald Roman site. This is a significant Roman fort that has been excavatedover the years and the ruins and interpretive centre gave some more details than many of the sites. This archeological site really gave a sense of the scale and size of the operation that Hadrian undertook.
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| Roman fort ruins |
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| More ruins |
I think the irony might’ve been lost on the locals, but there was an interesting graphic in the interpretative centre. It showed a Roman person dominating a local person with a speech bubble that said “how would you like it if someone took your land”. As someone from the colonies, who everyday confronts the history of colonialization there’s a certain irony to be reading that from the perspective of the Brits.
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| Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? |
We saw our friends from Iowa again when we were visiting the cafe. They were enjoying a bit of a reprieve from the weather, and we had a mind to do the same. It was good to catch up with them at this point in the walk as we enjoyed a hot chocolate, and a bit of a rest.
The wall, milecastles, torrents.
The big highlight of the day was being able to walk alongside the wall for so long. The trail really gave us a sense of what it was like to walk the wall. The terrain was also quite varied in that we saw the wall on quite flat areas through farmers fields, crossing rivers, and then more spectacularly along the ridges that took us up and down repeatedly.
Along the wall, there were also lots of milecastles and turrets and other Roman ruins to take in. All in all this was a very challenging day, but also probably the most spectacular in terms of the sense of history and what an engineering feat it was to build the wall let alone the great expense to keep the wall filled with centurions and guards and such.
It’s hard to capture all the amazing things we saw today and I guess the thing I keep returning to is just the sense of history and the connection to the past. As a good friend said when I showed a picture: “Incredible! Legions walked there!’ and he’s not wrong. That’s what makes it so special that you can touch the rocks that were laid by some Roman stone mason almost 2000 years ago.
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| Walking in the footsteps of history |
This was a really long day and probably the longest I’ve walked in one day in my entire life over; 30 km’s in total. Gloria on the other hand walks 50km just for fun so she’s doing just fine. I’ve got a few aches and pains in my feet but overall I’m in pretty good shape considering the abuse I’ve just put my body under. The abuse continues each evening with more wine and beer, but to be honest, that’s making the trip really nice too.
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| Dinner and drinks at Twice Brewed |
Our accommodations tonight are at a bunkhouse, the Winshields Campsite. It’s a basic accommodation, but everything’s clean and tidy and the host is absolutely lovely so no complaints here. Dinner was at the local Inn called Twice Brewed which is I think famous in the area. I’m pretty much in my happy place anytime I have bangers and mash and was able to top it off with an apple rhubarb crumble not to mention the aforementioned beers. So all in all life is good.
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| Bunkhouse! |
We settled in for another early night as we try and give our bodies as much time as possible to recover. The forecast is looking a little drier tomorrow and we’re also expecting a few less kilometers on the feet. To Chollerford I say!
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