Greenhead and Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian came to power in AD 117. The wall is the only stone-built frontier in the history of the Roman Empire; a statement of authority; a defensible line of control that interrupted the erratic movement of the Pictish tribes which so troubled the Romans. The wall played an active part in Roman life for almost 300 years, and when Roman jurisdiction fell away, it remained largely intact for another 1000 years- but after this time, stone from the wall was taken away in cartloads for re-use in general building. The route of the wall runs broadly between Carlisle and Newcastle, a distance of 85 miles. Many of the better preserved remaining sections are towards the middle.
I arrived at the Greenhead Hotel on Saturday afternoon and sat down first for a pint with Jeff, the barman, as Sue and Dave, who run the hotel and the Youth Hostel were fitting a new coffee machine in the YH kitchen. I had brought my camping things as when I rang to book, Dave had said I was OK in the YH for the second two nights, but he wasn’t sure about Saturday, as they had a party from Nottingham University and were fully booked. When he returned from the coffee machine endeavours, he said it was fine, I wouldn’t need to camp as he and Sue had just that day finished fitting out the flat, which is in the roof of the YH. So, that was where I spent the next 3 nights, and it was very nice indeed, with the little semi-circular windows of the old Methodist chapel, from which the hostel had been converted, in the living room and bedroom. I was pleased about not having to pitch the tent after all, as it was coming on to rain and the weather got worse and worse all night.
The following morning was lovely and bright, however. Good walking weather with a nice breeze and sunshine. I walked up towards ‘Hadrian’s Cycle Track’ (made me smile, didn’t know he had a bike) - going away from Greenhead towards Walltown and quite soon found the path across fields with plenty of sheep. I passed through at least a couple of fields, on a diagonal route in line with the stiles- some of which were outward facing steps in the dry stone wall. Fields finished, I came to a grassy place, sat down on a rock and suddenly realised that I had reached the Vallum- this is a long ditch-like structure (second photo), inside which Roman soldiers would walk. It felt amazing to have reached something so ancient and so recognisable, and I knew that the path I was looking for- and the wall- was now very close. The path goes up to Carvoran, where there is a Roman history museum and then there is a quarry leading to Walltown Crags. I realised when I got to the quarry that there were a few others walking the same path as my intended one. There was a British Heart Foundation sponsored walk. This did not bother me much as it is a vast open area and I did not think that the presence of a number of others would matter to the way I experienced all of this walk and the day. The wall starts to be in very firm evidence at Walltown- not a town now, just a place to park your car and some footpath signs. I sat down on the top of Walltown Crags, behind some rocks to wait for a group of BHF walkers to pass. Then a couple of older walkers came peering round at me… ‘are you ok?’ one of them said. ‘Yup’ I replied and showed them my cigarette - ‘smoking break’. They laughed and we introduced ourselves and I sponsored John, who is a farmer from Alnwick , for his walk. In their early seventies, both were interesting people and keen walkers. John’s friend told me that he’d been on a bit of a practice earlier in the week and only hoped he’d make it to the end. They were walking to Housesteads Fort (Vercovicium) - from where they’d started about 10 miles, from where I’d started about 12. I thought, well, I’d better do the whole lot as well then. I had intended to do a circular walk of about 8 or 9 miles, but this extended walk, with a bus back to Greenhead, sounded better.
It was pretty much in the same place as where I’d met these two walkers, that I got my first glimpse of the intact-looking wall undulating forward into seemingly miles and miles of landscape, following the contours of the sloping crags.
I was walking from west to east, so on my left was the Northumbria National park- a great plain of open land, and rising in the distance, with only scattered farmhouses, dry-stone walls and a few sheep. Cloud shadows on the land and a ewe and her lamb running across a field. A farmer on a quad bike towed a feed trailer with two sheep dogs running alongside. I followed all of these with my eyes as I sat on the edge of the crags, watching the country and living in the moment of it.
I continued walking along the Hadrian’s Wall Path (it is signed by an acorn) and about half a mile from the Roman Fort Aesica, I caught up with the BHF walkers again. John told me quite a bit about how he’d farmed his land, and the replacement wind turbines he was soon getting, which it was hoped would be more successful and consistent than the present ones, in generating power for the National Grid. John’s friend told me about the altar at Aesica, on which people still place coins and make a prayer. On his last visit, he’d put down a 5p piece with the prayer that he’d make it back to the car- but he seemed to be doing ok on this walk so far.
I stopped at Aesica and likewise placed a small coin on the altar, with general good hopes rather than a prayer. There is a photo of this altar posted earlier. It is interesting as it has a reasonable clear relief of a jug or a wine vessel on it, still distinct after the thick end of 2000 years. This fort seems to have been encroached on over years by a neighbouring farm, and there were a couple of ponies roaming about within a fenced-off bit.
After Aesica there is a downward path to another disused quarry, this one bigger, and called Cawfield. There is then an uphill trail to Cawfield Crags and after this, the walking gets into quite a rhythmic pattern. Uphill, sometimes very steep, then more beautiful views, including that of the ground walked earlier and the chance to see for miles on all four sides. There is flat walking on the top of the crags for some while, then another steep descent and rapid ascent again up the rocky steps and pathway to the next crag. All this repeats and repeats and is lovely in terms of walking, thinking and looking.
The dips are all short, and you can see always the crags ahead where you will be walking in perhaps an hour’s time. There is a little U-shaped dip with a tree in it- I liked this and later discovered that this is named for Robin Hood- not the original, but the filming of ‘Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’.
One of the loveliest parts of this stretch- between Walltown and Housesteads, is Steel Rigg. It is high, with very blue-grey stone and underneath is a slate-blue pool- Crag Lough. You can see all these things as you approach them, and this anticipation is also a great pleasure. I sat at the top of Steel Rigg to eat my lunch- ham off the bone and mustard, in sandwiches, and provided in a packed lunch from the Greenstead Hotel. The wind was quite strong and rooks were flying from the ground close to the lough, up to where I sat, hundreds of feet above. I could see their wings lifted by the air current as they swooped only a few feet above my head and into the hedge behind. There is a photograph that shows the view of the lough, with one of my feet in the bottom right hand corner.
The trig point was not far from Steel Rigg, about 387 meters and the highest point of the wall. There is also a pleasant wooded downhill stretch a little way after this. By the time I reached Hotbank Crags, I moved to the Roman Military Way- this path runs a little further south of the wall and is less steep, and I was nearly at the end of the walk and wondering about the infrequent bus service from Housesteads. That was ok, though. I came off the path at the Fort, walked down to the National Trust Visitor Centre (and that is all there is here) bought a can of coke (although would have liked a beer) and five minutes later the bus was there. If I had missed it though, I’d have had a two hour wait.
The bus is called the AD122, after the wall dates, and is a little vehicle, carrying about 20 people I suppose. There was a proper wall walker on the bus (ie unlike me, doing the whole thing) Ben, from Derby, who turned out to be also staying at the Greenhead YH. He was walking East to West and had resorted to the bus because he had blisters, and he retraced the route the following day. He was in two minds as to whether to miss it out, but once back at the pub, Jeff the barman and I encouraged him to do it the next day after getting supplies of plasters from Boots. Ben said he was glad that he did, as the Housesteads-Walltown section is indeed very beautiful and it would have been a shame had he missed it, having done the rest.
I very much enjoyed that bus journey back, because it followed the route of the wall virtually all the way, and I could see from the road side the route that I had just walked in the other direction…. And, yes, it did seem a very substantial distance indeed, given the ups and downs. I think I started about 9.30am and got the bus just after 2pm, but I stopped quite a few times for a look at things, and I slowed down a bit sometimes when I was walking with John and his friend from the BHF sponsored walk.
It was all an enormous pleasure and happiness, and I eventually got my pint when the bus arrived at Greenhead.