David Betteridge
Theme

Hadrian's Wall

I had a spare week (between jobs), so I decided to use the opportunity to "Fastpack" Hadrian's Wall. The middle section of the Wall is included on Pennine Way so I had covered that section twice before, the rest of the path however would be new to me.

A bit of googling beforehand suggested that although most people walk West to East, you have the disadvantage of traveling into the wind. As I expected the weather in February to be variable I decided to start in Bowness-on-Solway and travel eastwards to Newcastle.

The next decision was to either travel light and try to cover all 84 miles in one day, or to take minimal camping gear and give myself two days. The first option seemed a bit too ambitious, so I went with the multi-day option.

Travel

Getting to the start by public transport is not ideal, as it requires two trains and an infrequent bus.

The trip did not start well, the train network decided to cancel about 50% of the trains running from York to Newcastle. (I think this was due to overrunning engineering works from the day before.) It didn't affect me too badly, just meant that I had to get to the station in time for earlier train.

Had some time to spare in Newcastle station so grabbed a coffee and tried to find platform 7. Still don't quite understand but it seems that Platforms 7 and 8 share the spatial location. The waiting room was labelled the "Hadrian's Wall Line" so I assumed I was in the correct place. Whilst waiting on the platform I overheard two train conductors saying that the driver had hit their head when boarding the train - I thought this would make an interesting reason on the train delay form but fortunately the train left on time.

Arrived in Carlisle a couple of minutes late, but still with plenty of time to wait for the bus. This was my first trip to the Carlisle so I went for a bit of an explore around the centre - it has a citadel and a castle. It didn't seem long since leaving Newcastle so didn't bother to get a drink - this turned out to be a mistake.

I'm sure it makes sense to someone, but even although the bus station has 7 stands, both my bus and another bus were timetabled to leave stand 4 with 3 minutes between them. This of course meant my bus was delayed as we waited for the other bus first!

The bus journey turned out to be quite useful as you can recce the first few miles of the route by looking out the window!

Day 1 (Monday 20th Feb 2023)

After the bus dropped me off in the middle of Bowness-on-Solway it wasn't totally clear where the official start of the path was. (For future reference I think it's the carpark on the West end of the village)

Leaving the village, I soon reached Port Carlisle followed by another couple of small villages and then the 'long straight' road to Longburgh. (This was nothing however compared to the 'long straight' road on the following day!)

The road itself was quite interesting as it seemed to be at sea level and so was constantly at risk from flooding. Signs at the side of the road warned of quicksand and fast moving tides.

After a simple path diversion, the outskirts of Carlisle were then reached. Even though my pace had been slow and steady it was a warm day, and I was beginning to feel thirsty. The plan was to save the water in my pack and buy a drink from the first shop I passed in Carlisle. This was when I made my next mistake. Rather than diverting half a mile into the centre to find a shop I decided to keep going assuming then would be a shop enroute in the next few miles. As you might have guessed this didn't happen, instead I was soon past the city and crossing over the M6.

The path continues along small lanes, and passing through villages until Walton is reached. From this point you begin to cross muddy/slippery farmer's fields. It was now beginning to get dark, the lack of the moon and full cloud cover meant it was pitch black and it was hard to see even with my headtorch on full beam. When it then started to drizzle visibility became impossible. My torch was just lighting up the falling rain and I couldn't see a thing.

By the time I reached 'Banks' I was getting a little bit fed up the constant sliding over fields and bumping into cows hidden in the blackness of the night but fortunately I had a solution. The wall itself for the next few miles is sandwiched between the official footpath (over the fields) and a country road. At that time of night there was no traffic on the road so I simply run down that instead!

My aim for the first day was to reach Greenhead, this is where the path joins the Pennine Way and starts to become 'interesting'. Other than a couple of closed pubs I still hadn't passed any shops and was running very low on water. From memory however I knew there was a tap in carpark at Walltown Country Park. Ignoring the "this is not drinking water signs" I topped up and planned what to do next. It was still quite early (10pm) I wanted to try get to the halfway point (at 42 miles).

Visibility really became an issue at this point. Had a bit of a scary moment where I had wondered off the path and became disorientated. I gave up at this point and pulled my GPS out of my bag, as I waited for it to find some satellites I noticed the path was in fact only a meter to my left! Even with the help of my GPS navigation for the remaining couple of miles was not straight forward at finding the styles over the walls was a combination of guess work and luck.

Eventually made it to the second quarry carpark and decided it was a good place to spend the night. I set up camp under the picnic table, charged my watch and settled down to sleep. About an hour later (1:30am) a car drove into the car park at speed, spotted me and zoomed off again. They returned a couple of minutes later to enquire if I was OK and then left again. Five minutes later they returned once more, parked and a young lady got out. She came over and enquired if her "friend" had "dropped" anything near the picnic table. I pointed her in the direction of the small suspicious looking bag of white tablets under the table. She grabbed it, politely apologised for waking me and off she went!

Day 2 (Tuesday 21th Feb 2023)

After quite a bad night's sleep I got up at about 5:30am, ate breakfast, packed up and filled up my water bottle. By 6am I was on the move just as the sun was beginning to lighten the sky.

It was still dark, and the wet grass made the path hard work. Going uphill was fine but I kept losing my footing on the descents. After a couple of miles the path splits from the Pennine Way, and once again I was into new territory. The route continues climbing over another couple of hills (quite a good section) before re-joining the road. The path then follows the side of the road for miles and miles. Although not as interesting, it is much easier to make progress.

The route is well signed posted, and includes the distance to the next village/town, these are normally not more than 3 miles away. These are good from a mental perspective as it helps you break down the journey. Reaching the sign that told me the end was 25 miles away was a bit disheartening as I had calculated it was only 20 miles away - oh well!

At the village of Chollerford the first place to purchase food directly on the route is passed. This is a nice little cafe called "The Riverside Kitchen". I treated myself to a cup of tea and a cheese scone. I made the mistake of asking for a take away, the scone was then lovingly placed in a box, with a sealed dish of butter, and a knife. This was rapidly turning into the scene with Rowan Atkinson in the film Love Actually! Escaping from the Cafe I crossed the bridge over the North Tyne and scoffed my snack, which could well be the nicest scone I've ever had!

After the bridge there is an "optional" diversion to avoid the main road, and then you are soon following the straight military road once. After passing one of the many forts, I met a couple of walkers, doing the wall in sections. One of their first questions was "Have you done the Spine Race!"

Eventually the path diverges from the wall, and you enter the town of Heddon-on-the-Wall. This has a petrol station with a Spar shop providing a good place to stock up on drinks. I think there is a footpath almost next to the petrol station, but I missed it and took a very slight detour along the road. After leaving Heddon-on-the-Wall you cross a golf course and join an old railway line at the edge of the river Tyne. It is easy to make the mistake of thinking you are near the end at this point - you aren't - there are still a number of miles to do! The route follows a decent footpath but the inside of left my ankle was beginning to hurt, making it less painful to walk fast rather than run.

Reaching Newcastle, I had a bit of a choice between shopping at the train station or continuing on another 4 miles to the official finish at "Wallsend". As my ankle was getting quite sore I decided to call it a day, and return another day to run from the station right to the coast at South Shields. In my somewhat tired state, I then found it quite hard to find a route up the hill to the train station. In the end I followed some chap up some very dodgy looking "Long Steps" which emerges nearish the station. After a quick dash into Sainsbury's at the station, I was back in York an hour later.

Kit List

  • OMM Rucksack
  • Brook's Cascida Shoes (now destroyed)
  • Full length leggings
  • Thermal top + t-shirt
  • Montane Prism Jacket
  • Montane Waterproof Trousers
  • OMM Waterproof Jacket
  • Hat and gloves
  • Sleeping Bag + Bivvi Bag
  • Led Lensor headtorch + cable
  • Handheld GPS with route loaded
  • Garmin Watch + cable
  • Phone + Cable
  • USB Battery Pack
  • First Aid Kit + Paracetamol + Toilet Paper
  • 2L water bladder
  • Harvey's Hadrains Wall map
  • Map Case + Compass
  • Trekmates Crunchy Muesli + Spork
  • Sandwiches, Kendal mint cake, 4xSnickers and 3xTrekbars

Extras

Things I could have taken

  • Sleeping bag liner
  • Spare Torch (or batteries)
  • Reflective Top
  • Vaseline
  • Extra waterbottle
  • Duck tape for shoe repairs