"Hadrian's Wall
was built by the order of the Emperor Hadrian, following his visit to Britain
in AD 122. It was planned as a continuous wall with a milecastle every
Roman mile (1.48 kilometres) and two turrets equally spaced between each milecastle.
The wall, with its defensive ditches and large forts, stretched from
coast to coast, a distance of 80 Roman miles. It formed the northernmost
frontier of the Roman Empire."
Jolene and I headed
north to hike along the remains of this old wall in Northern England during a
long weekend starting in Chollerford and heading all the way to Brampton
(Cumbria). We covered a distance of 40 miles, crossing the English
countryside, farms, forests, hilltops along steep crags, damp open fields of
sheep and cattle, and much more. We stayed at various Bed and Breakfasts'
along the way which were all very enjoyable, and all of course included great
full English breakfasts to start that day's hike.
While we had some
troubles the first day as we lost track of the trail and went through some
extra fields, we did find our way back with Jolene's map reading skills.
Of the entire hike, we thought the second day was definitely the best. We
started the morning at an old Roman fort, and then hiked along the wall which
was mostly situated on a very high ridge on top of steep crags overlooking the
remaining green hills of England rolling towards Scotland.
The trip was at times physically and mentally draining with the long miles, wet fields, intimidating livestock, and a few wrong turns. This was all made worthwhile at our celebratory dinners in small British inns at each day’s end and our triumphant Brampton pub crawl at the end after standing next to the statue of Hadrian himself.
