Hadrian’s Wall Path: Day 9

/ alliwanders

The Sill > Chollerford, 10.4m

A great walking day! The rain held off, the wind was at my back, and the path was dry = perfect conditions. Of course there’s always something that only rates 9/10 and I’m afraid that was the scenery. 9 is obviously a great score, and it was well-deserved, it’s just that as the day progressed the path descended down from beautifully hard, high crags into grassy fields to end with a couple of miles on the road and I saw the last of the Wall of any great significance and I’ve still two days to go. 😦

The day started with my taking the bus east to Housesteads Fort to continue on from where I walked on Monday. The 1/2 mile climb up to the Wall was a welcome warmup as it was chilly with the howling wind. I immediately dropped down again and climbed again; ah, the crags!


Looking back up at Housesteads from the Knag Burn gate

The Knag Burn gate above is one of the few gateways in the Wall, soldiers controlled access to and from the Empire but some people were probably allowed through it to visit family, to look after farm animals and to trade (after paying a toll of course).

A few more ups & downs
Many of my favorite photos today were from looking backwards
Ahead, just one more climb
Down into the lumpy miles after Sewingshield Crag. All those people ahead were part of a group of 50 ex-soldiers, families and friends on a charity walk, 3 days on the middle bit
Fields, Roman ditches, stone fence, and traffic just beyond
Roman temple to Mithras, erected around AD 200 and destroyed about 150 years later.
Looking back at the last big bit of Wall
2 miles of pavement to end the day

But a happy ending. I had received an offer to upgrade my single bed room for £15, which of course I did, and was given a corner suite in a lovely hotel! Maybe I can just hangout here tomorrow…. 😉