Leg VIII – Wall to Housesteads – Friday 26 April 2013

The final morning brings blue sky and bright sunshine as we check out of The Wheatsheaf, shoulder our full packs and scour the co-op for the day’s supplies. By the time we’ve circled the village for the last time it is clear, as we await the AD122 bus, that despite the sun we will need our coats on in the brisk wind.

The bus deposits us, just before 11 o’clock, back in Wall outside the Hadrian Hotel and soon we pick up the Path along the A road to Chollerford. Here we cross the river by the old single carriageway bridge while viewing the site of the even older roman crossing, upstream at Chesters.

Back on the Military Road we head uphill, past Chesters Fort, and it’s only at the hamlet of Walwick, after 2 miles of pavement, that we are finally routed first into a country lane and then across some pleasant fields. Here a passing national park warden pauses in his litter-picking to warn us of the changeable weather expected.

Sure enough the blue sky is getting harder to find with clouds gathering and soon the wind gets colder, icy rain begins to fall, followed by just falling ice in the form of fine hail, before finishing off with a flurry of snow. Cold, damp but undeterred we press onward and upward, once again parallel to the Military Road, past Black Carts to our first (well ruined) bit of wall for the day.

After a steady climb up to 250m we level off onto the moor gaining fantastic panoramic views to the north over the North Tyne valley and the Northumberland National Park. The sky is huge up here and we can see a lot of weather today – large patches of sunlit valley, hordes of scudding clouds and darker masses trailing curtains of rain showers here and there. One of those comes our way and gives us another drenching.

The planned lunch stop is at Brocolitia Fort, but this turns out to be just a car park and a large fenced field offering no shelter. We join a few lambs hunkering down out of the wind in one of the field’s undulations and quickly devour our co-op supplies.

Any disappointment with Brocolitia is soon forgotten as the Path crosses the moor to the remains of a Mithraic temple, complete with altars and statuary (cast from the originals now in the Newcastle Museum). The scene is enhanced by lambs using it as a playground.

The Path soon reverts to type, crossing fields punctuated by stiles (thankfully fewer up here on the moor top than yesterday), hugging the edge of the military way, until finally, after 7 miles today, and 21 miles since Heddon, we see it fork off to the left and leave us to pursue the line of the wall on our own.

In the absence of the road, the remains of the wall proliferate, including bits of turrets and milecastles, as we climb up to Sewingshields Crags. With more fine hail filtering through the pine woods it’s more like November than April, but not unpleasant. Now the wall becomes a continuous companion as we rise to the crag top trig point at 325m. From here it should be a short step to complete the two miles to Housesteads, but although the wall can be seen snaking away over the hills to the west, of our destination there is no sign.

A brief sunny interlude enables us to stroll shirt-sleeved downhill, both a refreshing change, but then we are misdirected through the ‘Kings Wicket’ to the north of the wall, down below crags amid the ankle-breaking debris of centuries. Painstakingly we pick our way forward and eventually regain the wall and see Housesteads just 100 yards ahead.

Feeling triumphant, if a little sad, at the imminent completion of the final stage, we stop to absorb the achievement. But only for 30 seconds as the sunshine is now long gone and a hailstorm is heading our way. The petit-pois sized stones are quite amusing at first, but when full size frozen peas begin pelting us it is time to beat a hasty decline to the visitor centre half a mile down the hill. The green grass rapidly turns white under the carpet of hail and the bombardment becomes physically painful, then scary when forked lightning and simultaneous deafening thunder hit, creating a dramatic climax to the Ancient Roam.

The visitor centre should provide refreshment (the first available all day) and shelter for the one hour wait for the bus. However disaster strikes – the centre is closed for renovations and is nothing more than a fenced off building site with just 3 portaloos for emergencies. Fortunately the workmen have left for the day so we can scramble geriatically over a wall and huddle in a covered archway. Here, watching the pounding hail, we consume what food can be found remaining in our rucksacks – crisps, biscuits, even fruit – and speculate whether we could survive here overnight if the bus lets us down.

No need to worry. The good old AD122 turns up on time and whisks us back to Newcastle, back along the Military Road enabling us to relive the walk in reverse – 3 days compressed into 1½ hours. The familiar landmarks and watering holes unravel – the Military Road, Brocolitia, the Hadrian Hotel, Hexham Station, Corbridge, The Errington Arms at the Portgate, more Military Road, the Robin Hood Inn, the field of naughty lambs, Vindobala, the Wall that Heddon is on; and eventually, Newcastle Station.

Here, at 7pm, we get warm in WH Smith’s and have our first hot drink since 9am before boarding a comfortable train back to Darlington. We use the half hour journey to reflect on the job well done, to anticipate the return to home comforts, and to speculate on the next challenge.

Leg VII – Vindobala to Wall – Thursday 25 April 2013

It is damp with light rain as we board the 685 bus back to Holeyn Hall crossroads; unfortunately the driver is unused to anyone disembarking there, in the middle of nowhere, and overshoots the stop by about 100 yards before we point out his error and he pulls over. Retracing our steps from yesterday we soon reach High Seat and by 10.15 are back on the Path.

Back on the Path and back alongside the Military Road which will be our constant companion for today and most of tomorrow. First we are on the verge, then in fields adjacent to but below the road level, before emerging into more open field paths.

Two hours trudging up and over Harlow Hill, brings us to the Robin Hood at East Wallhouses where refreshing drinks of tea and beer are purchased and consumed in the stone floored and wood panelled bar.

The walk is resumed with the path shifting from fields on one side to those on the other of the never ending road; either side the stiles and gates intervene regularly. This section should be labelled the miles of stiles – but at least we are carrying lighter packs today as we are able to leave most of our belongings at Corbridge, to where we return tonight. The weather is a stubbornly persistent rain that varies from spitty-spotty to heavy drizzle and it is at its heaviest as we complete the two hour march to the Portgate. This is where the main Roman road north (Dere Street) passed through Hadrian’s Wall en route from Corbridge to Scotland.

More importantly it is the site of The Errington Arms and at 2 o’clock after 8½ miles it is time for lunch. Two appropriately (but coincidentally) named Ceasar salad sandwiches and two pints of beer do the job, and when we emerge 45 minutes later it is blinkingly into relative brightness; dry and with a freshening breeze.

Rising through field paths and over vertiginous stiles, good views to the north and east emerge. A pine plantation provides novelty value to the path for a while before we go back over the road and into fields of lambs and cows. Past Halton Shields the terrain flattens out and the sun begins to peep through. By Planetrees the landscape falls away to the west and, bathed in sunshine, provides the best aspect of the day.

To top it all there is a small section of wall showing how, in this section, the 2 metre wall was built on 3 metre foundations (presumed to be a cost saving measure). After the steep descent the line of the wall heads for Chollorford but helpfully for us the Path diverts south to follow the minor road towards Wall.

As the Path turns back towards Chollorford we continue into the village of Wall and bravely penetrate the eerie exterior of the Hadrian Hotel. Having completed our thirteen miles slightly ahead of schedule we have time for a cup of tea and a cake before crossing the road to the bus stop.

While waiting for the AD122 ‘Hadrian’s Wall Bus’ we are picked up instead by a random Arriva bus, whose driver offers us a lift into Hexham. We accept and Pete shows his appreciation by wetting the floor of his bus; thankfully it’s just water from a leaking bottle in his bag. Dropped off at Hexham station we improvise a train journey (one stop) to Corbridge only to discover the station is a good half mile outside the town. No matter, it’s a lovely evening by now so a short stroll across the picturesque bridge over the river and into town gets us to The Wheatsheaf before 7pm.

Tonight’s evening meals are excellent (beef chilli and smoked haddock – not together obviously – and a pint) and we finish off with another couple of pints watching football in the bar before retiring for a well-earned sleep.

Leg VI –Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Vindobala – Wednesday 24 April 2013

The 09.06 train from Darlington gives a smooth run to Newcastle, enabling us to be on the Quayside before 10 o’clock and set off westwards into a stiff breeze. The jumble of bridges is soon left behind as we stride along the concrete towpath where shiny new developments stare across at the derelict but still impressive Dunston Coal Staiths.

As the towpath ends the route goes up onto the A695 and then up above the road onto an enclosed strip of tarmac through grass verges and scrub, similar to that to the east of the city but here the graffiti on the walls is of higher quality. Somehow we get thrown off course at the A1 roundabout and follow the river instead of cutting inland through Denton Dene. Wandering into Newburn Riverside, aka nowhere, as we realise our mistake, consult the map and retrace our steps to regain the urban pathway at Lemington.

Having wasted 40 minutes and done an extra mile we ignore the invitation for tea / coffee in the Lemington Community Centre, and then at Newburn we resist a tempting bench under a lovely flowering cherry (mainly as it appeared to belong to some sheltered accommodation and although we could pass for OAP residents we did not wish to impose). Wavering we press on a few steps to find an unexpected but most welcome sight.

Nestled on the riverbank in the shadow of the single track Newburn Bridge is The Boathouse pub. Unpretentious, it provides two good beers to wash down our packed lunches while we sit on the bench outside and contemplate progress. Six miles done in two and half hours, but more importantly Newcastle’s westward sprawl seems to finish here, and with it the tarmac path, which becomes gravel and then just packed earth.

The open space that is Tyne Riverside Country Park is soon left behind and after a couple of miles of pleasant riverbank we find ourselves below Heddon-on-the-Wall. To get there we cross the line of the historic Wylam Waggonway (along which William Hedley’s Puffing Billy locomotive hauled coal waggons a year before George Stephenson built his prototype). Stephenson’s cottage is just along the way but we head inland, skirting a golf course and then climbing steeply up the narrow lane, gaining 100m in height in just over a winding mile, to the village. From up here the views across the Tyne are grand and probably reflect in the value of the imposing residences we haul ourselves past.

At Heddon is the Dingle Dell Café which provides tea and cake in stifling heat that threatens to induce a soporific coma; so it’s 3 o’clock before we drag ourselves out and set off on the final leg of the day. But not before we visit the village’s eponymous masonry, the first this side of Newcastle, where Pete photographs Alan-on-the-wall at Heddon-on-the-Wall!

Despite its small size Heddon proves tricky to get out of, but a quarter of an hour later we take our first steps along the dreaded Military Road. As feared, it’s concrete underfoot for a while, but after about a mile we are signed first onto a verge pathway and then into the adjacent fields, where we remain up to the site of Vindobala Fort.

Beyond there, the mercifully dry field paths take us to High Seat where we encounter our first sheep related incident of the walk. Four lambs have got out of their field and are on our path; as we walk along it they recede and it is apparent we are driving them towards an un-gated exit onto the road. By ducking through a hawthorn hedge into an arable field we are able to outflank them and re-emerge, only slightly scratched, onto the path ahead of them, causing a volte-face and retreat whence they came. Hopefully their mothers will look, well, sheepish, when they realise their lack of maternal care.

We ourselves emerge from the path onto the minor road and head south, over the A69 to the bus stop at Holeyn Hall crossroads on the B6528. Timing has worked out well and we have just a half hour wait before we can flag down the number 685 Arriva bus. Fifteen minutes and £8.20 later we are disgorged at Corbridge and after a nervous circuit of the town we find the Wheatsheaf Hotel where we are welcomed and shown to our rather spacious, well-appointed twin room.

The evening meals (ham salad for Pete and lasagne for Alan) are tasty and filling, and the beer is fine. Afterwards we take a stroll round the town calling in at the Golden Lion for an alternative, but slightly inferior pint, before returning to our room. It has been a long day, 13½ miles carrying a full pack and including probably the most severe climb of the trip up to Heddon, so dozing off to the background of televised snooker can be understood if not forgiven.