Leg IV – Greenhead to Housesteads – Friday 21 September 2012

We start the day with a full and hearty breakfast interrupted midway through by our host, clutching the phone, to enquire if we have lost a camera. Disbelievingly Pete converses with an hotelier in Brampton whose guests found it yesterday. From the photos she has been able to project our route and describe our appearance to likely establishments and so eventually track us down. Directions are taken and plans made to pick it up from her on our way back tonight.

Buoyed up by this good news we merely shrug off the disappointment of there being no shop in Greenhead; it will be iron rations (water, apples, chocolate) until at least Cawfield Quarry visitor centre where an enterprising local is reputed park a refreshment van.

On our way by 10 o’clock, the route now also doubling as the Pennine Way, we are soon ascending the grassy slope above Thirlwall castle revealing fantastic views back along yesterday’s route. The ground is wet but the day starts dry with blue sky behind scattered clouds.

From the car park at Walltown visitor centre the path rises steeply past a well-defined turret site at the start of Walltown Crags. Along the ridge it is up and down, but the up is always more than the down, to top out after about 2½ miles at 290m. All along this stretch the wall is a constant companion, punctuated by turrets and milecastles, and picturesquely in one dip a walled “King Arthur’s” well. To the north, far below the ridge, are miles of unspoilt wilderness, from which increasingly troublesome rain squalls hurl themselves at the fortifications, the crags, and us. Waterproof coats are on and off like the covers at an Old Trafford test match.

Eventually there is a steady decline from the ridge, losing the wall first through a small wood, then across spongy fields before remnants return in the form of a giant walled field that preserves the site of Chesters Fort (Aesica). More wet fields, and puddled stiles, lead down to Burnhead and Cawfield Quarry. Here there is a visitor information centre and it’s a nice spot for a lakeside picnic, but there is no refreshment van in sight. The four hard miles have taken the best part of three hours to cover, but all we have for a reward is a rock to sit on and a mars bar to share. Musing on our slow pace we realise that the four miles are as the crow flies, and so peak to peak, whereas we are earthbound and have had to cover the vertical as well as the horizontal distances.

Within 20 minutes we are on our way up the steep slope, past another well-presented milecastle site (no. 42) and on and up to Cawfield Crags. The big dipper day continues with a drop down to Caw Gap before another steep climb up to Whinshield Crags. At least the showers have ceased so we can strip off to shirt sleeves to tackle the long undulating slopes, terminated by the welcome site of a trig point at 345m. From here the distant Twice Brewed Inn can be seen beckoning far below.

For once the path’s decline is steady rather than precipitous, and the hamlet of Peel is reached rapidly. From here a diversion off the path down to the military road is needed but it takes just 10 minutes to reach the aforementioned pub. It is now nearly 3 pm and after 5 hours (six since breakfast) and 7 miles we can rest, relax and refuel. Tea and hot sandwiches are ordered, and pending its arrival two halves of the local Twice Brewed Ale are despatched to quench our immediate thirst.

Well satisfied with this watering hole it is an hour later that we drag ourselves out and stride stiffly back to Peel to tackle the final two sets of crags for the day. A steep natural staircase takes us up past milecastle 39 atop Peel Crags, before we enter a delightful downhill section. For once we are on the north side of the wall, passing through the dappled shade of a pine wood high above the peaceful waters of Crag Lough. Every downhill section just leads to the next, bigger, uphill one, and this time it is up Hotbank Crags. Declining from those we say farewell to the Pennine Way, envious of its weaving route north across the flat plain while our path continues east, once more ascending, this time up Cuddy Crags.

Finally the decline of Housesteads Crags, through a small wood, leads us to the welcome sight of Housesteads Fort (or Vercovicium), and a locked gate! Pete uses some deeply buried Scottish ancestral knowledge to scale the fort walls and gain entry. At 5.30 it is eerily deserted and there is time only for a cursory glance around the impressive remains as the visitor centre, a good half a mile down the hill, (with its hot drinks and food) closes at 6pm.

We make the distance in 15 minutes and are able to partake of hot chocolate and caramel shortbread while awaiting our pick-up and lift home. We have covered only 9½ miles (10½ including the pub diversion), but it represents a hard 7½ hours walking (OK - 6½ hours excluding the pub). That does make 30 miles for the three day jaunt, and the plan to break the walk here and return in the spring is probably wise.

Sam and George arrive in the car park to congratulate us on our interim achievement and take us home. Of course we need to divert via Brampton to pick up the long lost camera and offer profuse thanks for saving the photographic record of the early stages of the Ancient Roam. Hopefully the camera will have dried out by April to enable completion of the task.