Captain's Log

Breakfast

I looked up at the sky from Sykside's Farm courtyard and saw a ceiling of grey sky. At least it wasn't raining. Exactly at 08:00, the kitchen door opened and the Lady of the house appeared, preceded by three energetic Terriers. She was carrying a tray supporting an egg butty that I'd ordered when I paid for the pitch. It was indeed a fried egg in a bap and went down my gullet faster than a Gannet swallows a fish. Hadrian's Wall Path thru-hikers require more sustenance than one egg butty. My plan 'B' for breakfast was to have a vegetarian Full English at the café in the nearby village of Walton. I'd had a meal there before and it had been excellent. Ten minutes later I was stood next to a sign that said the café would not be open until 10:00. To be honest, I expected this would probably be the case and so I implemented plan 'C'. I had a nibble of my Paradise Flapjack and was immediately energised for the day's walk ahead.

Today's route would follow the Hadrian's Wall Path to Winshields, which would be my halfway point of the trail. I'd only seen hints of the wall on the trail so far, but from my previous excursions along this route I knew that today would provide views of the wall in abundance. I also knew that the trail would now become a rollercoaster compared to the snooker table I'd walked along so far.

American Thru-Hikers

It wasn't long before I reached the refreshment honesty shed at Haytongate Farm. A middle aged American couple was stood next to a patio table. They were doing the trail east to west and were waiting for the rest of their group to arrive from Brampton. The chap seemed polite enough, but the demeanour of the woman was so frosty, I started shivering and had to put on my windproof jacket. I dumped my rucksack at the patio table and wandered over to the shed to pick up some goodies. As I returned to the patio table I caught the tail end of some dialogue between the couple; the woman was complaining about somebody in their walking group. I figured that must be the reason they were standing here on their own and the prickly atmosphere. I've sometimes been on group thru-hikes where some people in the party don't hit it off. I've always found it best to avoid the participants and just get on with enjoying the holiday. I wasn't going to drink my Coke whilst climbing the steep hill from Haytongate Farm and so I attempted some polite conversation. Thankfully the man responded. They were from Florida and once they'd finished this walk, they intended going across to France to visit the D-Day beach landing areas. After that, they would return to England and attend the Silverstone Grand Prix, before travelling home. I told them that I'd always found a significant number of Americans along this particular trail and wondered why that might be. He didn't know. He said that the trail wasn't really promoted across the pond. I guess that little mystery will persist since I'd finished my Coke by this time and so said my goodbyes before starting the haul up the hill.

Hadrian's Wall At Last

The geology changed around Haytongate Farm such that I left the sandstone to the west and joined the limestone to the east. The consequence of this is that limestone is much more difficult to wash away than sandstone and so remnants of the wall actually still exist in the east. It wasn't long before I came across my first real sighting of Hadrian's Wall, a significantly high chunk at Hare Hill. This was a mere appetiser to the long stretches of wall that would soon start appearing along the road from the village of Banks.

There isn't really a standard template for Hadrian's Wall. It was built in different heights, widths and designs over its whole length. The Roman's were after something functional, rather than merely aesthetic. It was also refurbished and rebuilt over an extended period. The post Roman eras saw stone pilfering that provided the building materials for many nearby houses, churches and farm walls. Not only that, but one particular Victorian landowner took it upon himself to rebuild sections of the wall in the way that he thought the Romans would have done. Therefore, you are never really sure whether you are looking at the genuine thing...that is, if you can actually define what the genuine thing really is. Maybe it is better to just look at the wall as simply layers of history that have built up like layers of sediment in a river over time. Each layer can tell its own story.

Milecastles And Turrets

Although the design of the wall changed over location and time, there were a few features that were consistent (mostly). For example, there was a milecastle every...well mile. That's the shorter Roman mile, rather than the modern UK mile (0.92 of a UK mile). These were rectangular forts, with had a 15m x 18m base (approx) and were maybe 5 to 6m high. The nearby barracks would hold 20-30 soldiers. Each milecastle usually guarded a gateway through the Wall. A turret was built a 1/3rd of a Roman mile either side of a milecastle. These were stone watchtowers and it is assumed they were manned by soldiers from the milecastles. Those that are good at maths will realise that there were 2 turrets between the milecastles. Since Hadrian's Wall is 80 Roman miles long, there were 80 milecastles and 158 turrets. The milecastles were numbered by J Collingwood Bruce at the end of the 19th century, with number 1 starting at the eastern end of the Wall.

The initial sightings of milecastles and turrets gave me some delight given the lack of evidence of ruins, thus far. This waned somewhat after I'd walked past my fourth or fifth milecastle.

Birdoswald And Gisland

There were also 18 larger forts positioned along Hadrian's Wall. I approached one of these at Birdoswald. It was known as Banna in Roman times, meaning 'peak or horn' in Celtic. This was supposed to reflect the geography of the site and was not immediately obvious on a first perusal. English Heritage owns the site and so you need to dig deep into your pockets if you want to take a tour of the ruins. Those that have already had their fill of milecastles and turrets by this point, might just want to continue following the now significant remains of the wall towards the River Irthing.

The Romans had several attempts at getting the bridge right over the River Irthing. An information board shows a Chinook helicopter lowering the last of these into position. Curious that; I always thought that Leonardo Da Vinci had come up with the idea of a helicopter, centuries after the Romans. It's amazing what you learn on the trail.

The wall led me up over a hill and down into the village of Gisland. I stopped at the House Of Meg's café and refuelled on my trail staple of baked spud, cheesy beans and cake. As I wolfed this down at the patio table outside the establishment, I heard a clanging across the road. The three Romans that I'd met at the refreshment honesty stop at Linstock on the previous day were making their way along the road. One of them was clanging each lamppost with his trekking pole for some reason. As I left the café I met up with a couple of people that were canvassing for Labour for the forthcoming General Election. On my enquiry, the woman told me that the constituency had been that of Rory Stewarts, but due to election boundary redefinition, it would now include part of Carlisle. She was hopeful that Labour would gain the seat.

Thirlwall Castle And Walltown

I wasn't long out of Gisland when the heaven's opened. I mean they really opened. I was soon soaked to the skin even with my waterproofs on. The skies were a menacing variation of greys. By the time I reached Thirlwall Castle, the sun was starting to appear. The rain-sun cycle continued for the rest of the afternoon, although the later showers were never as bad as that first one.

I caught up with the 3 Romans at Thirlwall Castle. They looked lost and that was because they were. Thirlwall Castle is just a short out-and-back from the main trail and they'd assumed the trail just continued beyond the castle.  I pointed out the direction of the trail and they set off. They were staying in Once Brewed tonight which wasn't that far from my intended campsite. Thirlwall Castle was built from stones taken from Hadrian's Wall. Thirlwall means 'Gap in the Wall' which I suppose there was, once they'd taken the stones. It is an imposing ruin and was built as a stronghold from reiving raids in the 14th century.

Another half and hour's walking and I caught up with the 3 Romans again at Walltown. They were sat at a patio table eating their lunch. This would be the last I would see of them. I don't know if they completed the whole trail or gave up. I sometimes wondered about the progress of the other thru-hikers I encountered. Walltown was a quarry area used by the Romans to source the building material for the wall. It is a far prettier place than the name and description suggests with picnic areas and a large pond. The sun was now fully out and I stayed a while to dry my tent. As soon as it started getting grey again, I packed up and set off on my last haul of the day to Winshields.

Cawfields

It is a bit of rollercoaster between Walltown and Winshields. I climbed up to the ridge above Walltown and got a wonderful panoramic view of the surrounding area. I could see the peaks of the Great Whin Sill stretching to infinity to the east. Well, not quite to infinity, but they do go as far as Lindisfarne (Holy Island) on the east coast. The Romans weren't daft; they used this outcrop of hard black dolerite as a natural defence. There were obvious military advantages to the Wall following this geological crest, but it did mean that I now had a lot of up and down to do. Time was pressing and I set off with some determination.

I was a little less determined on my umpteenth hill and I had to nibble a portion of my Paradise Flapjack to get me through the challenge. At Cawfields I came across another quarry supporting another pond. The Wall actually goes to the top of a small pyramid of a peak and I made my way up to the top. I found another group of walkers near the summit. They were fairly elderly and were talking as though they'd reached the summit of Everest. The view is probably not as spectacular as from Everest's summit, but it is still rather good. There is a magnificent view back down the wall to the remains of milecastle 42. It provides an inevitable photograph opportunity that one invariably sees in books and on the front of the Harvey's Hadrian's Wall Path map. I followed the intrepid explorers back down to milecastle 42 and immediately left them to continue my journey towards Winshields.

Winshields

At 345m Green Slack is the highest point on the Hadrian's Wall Path. I nearly reached its summit before diverting away from the trail on to a path down to Winshields Farm campsite. This was over 200m of descent and was a bit frustrating, since I'd have to climb back up to the ridge tomorrow morning. 

Half a dozen mini-buses were parked at the farm and the barn-shelter was full of youngsters. I went towards reception and the owner appeared across the courtyard. 'Have you got a full house?' I enquired. He told me that there were a couple of Duke of Edinburgh groups staying. 'It won't be a problem' he assured me, and he pointed me to a non-DoE area to pitch. The clouds looked threatening again and so I quickly pitched my tent. It was a bit of a disturbed evening. For some reason, the teenagers felt the requirement to shout at each other across the campsite, rather than walk across to somebody and speak to them at a normal volume. When I went to clean my teeth at the toilets a number of teenagers were talking to each other in English, but in a vocabulary I didn't quite understand. I felt the generation gap.

The light woke me up at 04:30 in the morning and I figured that it might be a less busy time to use the toilets. Amazingly, I found one of the crappers was already in use. Winshields Farm campsite is probably a place I'd avoid on busy weekends.