Hadrian’s Wall Path

Arrive at your accommodation before you start your walking holiday along Hadrian’s Wall in the morning.

Depending on where you are staying there may be a short train journey before your walk begins. This first stage begins by the only remaining piece of the Wall that originally run down from the fort to the Tyne, and which now stands just over the railings outside the fort grounds. A riverside route along the Tyne gives way to predominantly arable farmland above Tynedale.

For much of the way, the route follows a disused railway and a national cycle lane across Newcastle and its outskirts mainly through an urban landscape, although at the end of the day you will enjoy the glorious countryside and wonderful green fields covered in colourful wildflowers beside the River Tyne. Highlights of the day are the Museum and Roman Fort of Segedunum, at the very start of the trail, and the abundance of information that you can read along the way about the medieval and industrial past of the city of Newcastle.

Today’s route along the Hadrian’s Wall will take us through open countryside, never far from the side of the road, but mainly on farmland next to the roadside hedge or wall. For most of this stage, you will be trekking in fields alive with livestock and other wilder creatures of the British countryside. You can see hares, rabbits and a superb variety of bird-life including crows, lapwings, finches, swallows and on the waters of Whittledene Reservoir, the great-crested grebe, tufted duck and dunlin.

The trail almost follows a straight line near the road except for one or two small corners, the path often exiting onto or across the road as it makes its way into the next field or past a farmhouse. We will start to see more and more archaeological findings and evidence of Roman occupation as the day progresses.

Perhaps the most thrilling day of the entire walk; this stage is to be savoured. Encompassing the best preserved fort on the Wall, the finest views, and the most complete sections of the Wall. You can also see the northernmost point of the Hadrian’s Wall trail and some great if slightly exhausting walking, this is a day for superlatives. So bring plenty of food and water with you, bucket loads of stamina and prepare to enjoy yourself.

While this stage is not as spectacular as the previous one, it is perhaps the most interesting. Today, we will climb to the highest point of the entire trail, we will cross from Northumberland into Cumbria and it will take place in a change of scenery. From the windswept moors and crags that provided yesterday’s backdrop to the more gentle, rolling, cultivated landscape of England’s far north-west. We also cross the watershed on this day, so that by the end of it any river we encounter from now on flows west towards the Irish Sea. Not to be missed are the remains of a Roman bridge, who would have carried both the Wall and the Military Way near Gilsland, at the River Irthing. There are also numerous remains of turrets, forts and mile-castles along the trail to be seen. Quite a stage indeed!

Pleasant walking through colourful fields in which to enjoy marvellous scenery. Just after Gilsland, the fort of Birdoswald is reached, the route then continues high above the steep-sided Irthington Gorge, before beginning a gradual descent at the village of Banks. Rich agricultural landscape and parkland replace the moorland as the route drops steadily through the villages of Walton and Irthington before reaching lovely River Eden for the final section of the historic border city of Carlisle. Carlisle’s history is very much evident with its cathedral, castle and old city walls.

Today after breakfast you can take a train north to Scotland, south towards Manchester or east back to Newcastle where you began.