Day 6

Look beyond John in the photo above, and you will see that the trail continues where it left off yesterday — going up, then down and up again.

The trail presented us with the usual vast assortments of rocks made into stairs.

At least on the one above, you had side boulders to hang onto as you went up or down.

And the views — and the weather — were stunning. My eyes loved it, my knees, not so much.

In the background, note what’s left of the arches on this milecastle. It allowed archeologists to determine the height of the arched gateway.

This milecastle was excavated in 1853 by John Clayton, another individual responsible for saving Hadrian’s Wall. English Heritage says this of him: “When John Clayton was four, his father bought the mansion house of Chesters which had the Roman fort of Cilurnum in its front garden. It was the start of a life-long interest. By the time John died in 1890 he owned five forts – Chesters, Carrawburgh, Housesteads, Vindolanda and Carvoran – as well as most of the Wall within this 20 mile stretch.”

These are the “stairs” down into Sycamore Gap. This is where my hiking poles came out. I bought these for this trip because they fold down to 14 inches, small enough to fit inside by day pack. This would be a vital first test for these $27 poles, which is cheap.

Twice Brewed, where we stayed last night, has this display in their lobby. Take a look at the photo in the lower left corner. This scene made it the most photographed tree in the United Kingdom by many observers. Clayton planted the tree in the 1880s. It was the scene of many marriage proposals, of weddings and was featured in the 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” starring Kevin Costner.

That all ended on Sept. 28, 2023, when two area men cut down the tree. Police found the pair by tracking their mobile phones, analyzing vehicle movements and recovering the video of the crime the men took and their voice messages bragging about what they had done. Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carothers, 32, were charged with criminal damage to the tree and to Hadrian’ Wall. All this according to BBC, which conflicts with information in “Hadrian’s Wall Path” guidebook.

The men went on trial in May 2024 and denied any involvement. But after they were convicted, Carruthers called it “drunken stupidity,” and Graham said it was Carruthers’ “dream” to fell the tree and Graham just went along with it. The judge had none of that stupid drunkenness, pointing out that they drove 20 minutes to the gap, hauled chainsaws up the trail and picked a stormy night when the wind would help fell the tree. She sentenced them to four years and three months in prison.

Carruthers was released after 10 months. The Ministry of Justice said people on “home curfew” must wear an ankle monitoring device and “face strict license conditions.” Those who break the rules go back to prison.

Graham remains in prison.

The stump of the tree is sprouting new growth all around it. Soon people from the road and trail may see this bushy thicket, but one estimate of when a single tree will be visible is 200 years, if ever.

Don’t walk on top of the wall, say the trail rules, but here many people did (not I). This is in the area where in 2004 a group of 800 bankers walked on top of the wall as a team building exercise. Preservationists and historians were not pleased. Since then, the bankers have returned, split into smaller groups and stayed off the wall.

This was our longest day. We walked 13.2 miles, my hiking poles held up and I barely made in time for our 6:30 p.m. dinner reservation at the George Hotel in Chollerford.

Day Five

Somehow I thought this trail would not venture up a cliff like the one pictured above. But I was wrong. If you want to follow Hadrian’s Wall then you have to go to where the Romans built it. Looking at the cliffs ahead, I wondered why the Romans thought they needed a wall on top. The natural crags seemed defense enough. However, the Romans were thorough, and they built atop the Walltown Crags. That meant that anyone who came later had to go up on rocks assembled to make bumpy stairs (second photo below).

Then walk across crag to the next set of rocky stairs going downhill (for creaky knees, that’s worse).

According to “Hadrian’s Wall Path,” this is the “highest part of the Wall that hasn’t been restored or rebuilt by well-meaning 19th-century archaeologicals.”

All of this up and down, but mostly up, leads to Green Slack on Winshield Crag, the highest point on the trail.

In recent years, the train gave up its stop at Gisland. The permanent post office closed, and now there is one run “on a pop-up basis by volunteers in the Village Hall,” according to “Hadrian’s Wall Path.” Then a pub closed, and the owners of the Samson Inn said this is not quite right for us and offered it for sale. “A developer’s dream,” said one of the operators there now. The building could accommodate four cottages for sale or rent at a costly price.

But the community organized, raised funds, had some government help and kept the pub. Between 400 and 500 live in Gisland, and there are something like 450 shareholders in the pub. Not all investors are from the town. Some Hadrian Wall walkers have contributed, including some who will never do it again but want to save it for future trekkers.

Gisland is where Sir Walter Scott met his wife. More about him in a future post.

Back to Day 4:

We are walking headed east on the walk that follows Hadrian’s Wall, which means you walk 25 miles before you see anything resembling a Roman wall. And it is a sorry bit of piled rocks. Shame on the Romans for leaving such a site as the walkers’ first glimpse of what they had done. Or maybe the blame should fall on those who came afterwards and used the wall as their Home Depot.

But it gets better. Much better. Much of the wall you see looks like this, a scaled down version of what was once a 20 foot high wall complete with forts, milecastles (one every mile), turrets ( between the milecastles) and a signal tower. We would see plenty of those as we walked on.

Or climbed on. Here is one way to get over the modern walls that local farmers have built. Larger stones in the wall to serve as stepping stones, some with a gate added.

There are also several ladders over fences and walls.

It’s a risk to local farmers to have thousands of hikers crossing their fields with their livestock. Will all walkers behave? There are signs at each gate to leave the livestock alone and keep dogs on a lead.

We were lucky enough to arrive at Birdoswald when a guided tour was about to begin.

While pointing out what the Romans did at this fort, she also described what came afterward. The Romans first showed up in 55 BC when Julius Caesar came, to see and not conquer before he returned to Rome and met up with the senate, Brutus and sine die. Jump ahead 100 years to Emperor Claudius and 40,000 soldiers who conquered most of the British Isles and its assorted tribes before getting to the Caledonians in what is now Scotland. Why bother, said Emperor Trajan and his successor Hadrian. We’ve got the minerals and grain we came here for so let’s let the barbarians stay up north and out of our hair. Hadrian started his wall in AD 122 and over six to 10 years built 17 forts, 80 milecastles and 158 turrets, along with the wall that connected them.

Even though the Romans had thousands of men, I am amazed that all this could be built so quickly. The stones had to be quarried, cut into the right shape, hauled to the wall, stacked and mortared. Defensive ditches were dug on both sides of the wall.

But the wall was in use for 300 more years until the Romans withdrew their troops from Britannia to fight closer to Rome as the empire ceased away.

Our guide leader pointed out that life did not end when the Romans left. Pictured above are the granaries at Birdoswald. The wooden pillars were not put up by the Romans but were installed in Medieval times. The village outside Birdoswald moved in to the covered fort when the Romans left. Many of the troops then were Dacian who didn’t know how or care about keeping up the stone fort (sorry Romanian and Transylvanian descendants). This became, our guide leader said, an “irritated land,” and many down south wanted it to stay irritated and not venture southward. Eventually, this “debatable” (her word) land sunk into 300 years dominated by reivers, raiding parties on both sides of the English and Scottish border. If you think of Steve McQueen in the movie “Reivers,” based on William Faulkner’s story (the only thing I have read by him), forget it. That lovable horse player, woman chaser was nothing like the Border Reivers, who rustled livestock, raped women, pillaged and kidnapped. This ended in 1603 with the Union of the Crowns, when childless Elizabeth I dies and the crown passes to the next available heir, her cousin James VI, King of Scotland. England and Scotland now shared the same monarch.

The farmhouse on the site was built in 1745, and the property eventually was purchased by Henry Norman, who said we ought to preserve this Roman history instead of carting it away to enclose your garden.

From Birdoswald, we walked on toward Gisland, where we spent the night.

We climbed to the highest point on Hadrian’s Wall walk today — and there are more hills tomorrow, which is our longest day in distance. I have lots of info to catch up readers. That will be done when I can stay awake after these days of walking. Be patient and good night.

In for the night and ready to post about the real Hadrian’s Wall, rocks and all. However, the WiFi and cell signal could be left over from what the Romans installed.

Walked 9.5 miles today and finally saw Hadrian’s Wall, at least the parts the later occupants left standing.

More when signals are better.

We did not get started walking until 11 a.m. because of further bus adventures. But we connected with the Hadrian Wall bus that brought us back to where we left off yesterday. Those extra four miles we did yesterday shorten today’s walk to seven miles that we wrapped up by 3 p.m.

Hadrian Wall was once again a no show, but the guidebook said it would be “some pleasant riverside strolling, a sizable chunk of walking on mercifully quiet roads and some lengthy roaming among ruminants.”

Which it was.

Great weather today. No rain, shirt-sleeve weather.

We left the Inn at the Bush at the Bush in Kirkbride, Cumbria, this morning, wearing our rain jackets,

which stayed on all days as the rains came and went. Hadrian’s Wall is still hidden away in all the buildings that have been built since the Romans left the country in 410 AD. So this post won’t break the surface.

Today we walked on

We walked 10 miles today, going four miles that were scheduled for tomorrow. We put in the extra mileage and taxied back (because the buses apparently don’t run on Sunday) to our inn in Carlisle.

We start getting into some hills tomorrow. But we will still have our faithful companions:

Started our first day of walking along Hadrian’s Wall, which that Roman emperor began in 122 AD to divide England from Scotland and all its barbarians. Did eight miles. Seventy-seven to go.

Today we saw lots of these:

Many of these:

It rained some but then the sun came out.

Talked to a couple from Colorado Springs. John and I (another John) are hiking eastbound. I met two westbound walkers who announced, “This is my final day.”

Speaking of final days, I learned about Edward I.

Edward, the Hammer of the Scots, came up here to fight Robert the Bruce in 1307 but died of dysentery instead. He lie in state in this church

before he was carried off to London for burial at Westminster.

One thing I did not see was Hadrian’s Wall. That’s because after the Romans left in 410 AD, the wall came down, stone by stone, to build churches, barns, houses, shops and anything else that the next thousands of generations wanted. Here are csome of the Roman stones that appear in St. Michael’s church, where Edward was on display.

On a site that has seen defensive structures for 2,000 years, you might think I would come up with something more learned than what the above photo shows. But this little corner in the dungeon at Carlisle Castle spoke my lingua.

When Jacobite soldiers, trying to restore the Stuarts as kings of England, were held here in 1745-6, the only water available to the 30 prisoners, standing room only, was water dripping down the stone walls. So they licked. And licked some more until the grooves you see were formed. Stephen, our very good tour guide, said the top one tastes like strawberry. I took his word for it.

The Romans built a turf and timber fort on this site in 72 AD, before Hadrian’s Wall was started in 122 AD (a date and who started it a matter of debate). A hill and three rivers surrounding it made it too hard for the Romans to pass up. Stephen said The Guardian newspaper recently named Carlisle Castle the ugliest in the United Kingdom. That’s OK with Stephen since this castle has withstood more sieges than any other in the realm. Ten times, which makes it much different than those “Disneyland castles” down south.

We finished off our visit to Carlisle with a walk-through of the cathedral there. Carlisle has been a center for Christianity since at least 650 AD, when, according to Bede*, St. Cuthbert** visited “an active Christian community” there. Then King Ecgfrith (get that one past self correct!) of Northumbria granted land to Cuthbert to keep the Christian influence going.

This may be the beginning of what a previous traveling companion called a VAC vacation as in Yet Another Cathedral. But this is a beautiful church and a good way to start this walking journey. I could have knelt down for a blessing but was afraid my knees would not let me get back up.

*theologian and historian who wrote “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”). He died in 735.

**regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria. He died in 687 AD.