Day 17 - Greenhead to Twice Brewed

Today's Greenhead to Twice Brewed section hardly felt like walking at all after yesterday's 22 mile bogfest marathon. However this is a good section of the Pennine Way to split rather than walking through to Bellngham as it's the Hadrian's Wall section, which means lots of fantastic views and sights which deserve more than a cursory glance.

Since our walking guide gave today's mileage as just 7 miles there was no hurry to leave last night's Greenhead Hotel (which was excellent), no hurry with the walking, no skimping on the photography, no holding back on striking up conversations with fellow walkers, and no avoiding diversions to sights off the Pennine Way. To start with this meant heading out west from Greenhead to join the Pennine Way where we left it, rather than heading north for the closest connection. The point where we rejoined the Pennine Way is where it crosses the A69, probably the busiest road that the path crosses (the M62 crossing in week 1 was a footbridge, so that's cheating). This is the sort of footpath <--> busy road crossing of which there are many on the A30 in Cornwall, where I've never seen any walkers, and always wondered if they're really used as they look so risky. Certainly this one must be well used as it's unavoidable for walkers who don't stop in Greenhead.

A69 - Pennine Way Crossing

After skirting around the perimeter of Haltwhistle Golf Club the path crosses the Newcastle to Carlisle railway at an unattended crossing. I like these crossings. Who really gets killed on this sort of crossing apart from people who are suicidal or playing dare ?

Newcastle to Carlisle railway

Almost immediately the path reaches Thirlwall Castle, a 12th century castle of which there's not much more than a couple of walls left. From paintings and drawings in the mid 18th century it was still in a pretty good state then, but the theft of stone, damage due to felling of trees nearby, and general weathering quickly reduced it to a shell. Apparently there's a local legend that during one raid by the Scots a family servant jumped down a well to hide the family's treasure, and he's still down there. The most valuable item he took was a gold table. Sounds a bit Saddam.

Thirlwall Castle

A brisk ascent east away from Thirlwall Castle and past the Roman Army Museum carpark, and we were onto our first real section of Hadrian's Wall. This is one of the most picturesque sections of the wall, and less walked than parts further east. At times the wall completely disappears and its path has to be inferred from the line of the cliffs or shallow ridge of stones. At other times the wall is at its full 6' thickness with frequent turrets or milecastles, where soldiers would be stationed to keep watch over their section of the wall. Largely the wall was used as a means of controlling trade between the sides rather than to prevent invasion by tribes to the north. Low dips in the wall would be crossing points where goods crossing either way might be subject to taxies or duties.

Hadrian's Wall - turret 44B

A couple of miles east, at Cawfield Crags, we got into conversation with a Canadian couple, Daryl and Dina, from British Columbia in Canada. They have been over in the UK and Ireland for almost 6 weeks, visiting historic sites which have a relevance to their family histories. After explaining that I'm raising money for the MND Association they immediately fished out £5 to give me as sponsorship. What nice people. I'll definitely try to visit them when I'm next visiting my mother's sisters in BC. Let's see if they remember any of this.

Nothing could be finer than to talk to Daryl and Dina in the morning

Another couple of miles east at Winshield Crags the wall is again at its photogenic best, but we're perilously close to the end of today's section of the Pennine Way at the Steel Rigg car park, where we head down to Twice Brewed.

Hadrian's Wall at Winshield Crags

This seems a bit ridiculous. We're at the end of today's walk by 2:15pm, so rather too early to be checking into the hotel and twiddling our thumbs for the afternoon. However, we're only a couple of miles from Vindolanda, one of the best museums and excavation sites on the wall. I managed to pick out a footpath on the GPS which will take us to Vindolanda avoiding the main road, and we were there by 3pm, so plenty of time for a late lunch and for a thorough visit.

Vindolanda has a long history of excavation, including by the Rev. Anthony Hedley who was probably the first historian and archaeologist to revive interest in Hadrian's Wall back in the early 1800s. He built a house on the site, and this remains to this day as the main part of the museum (/cafe/gift shop), and with wonderful landscaped gardens including recreations of Roman temples, homes, and shops.

Rev Headley gardens

The museum alone is worth the admission price, housing a significant collection of artifacts found at Vindolanda, including the largest collection of leather of any Roman site in the UK, and the famous Vindolanda Tablets. This is a large collection of wooden tablets bearing inscriptions of various sorts, mainly military operational matters, along with many letters from ordinary Roman soldiers stationed along the wall. Most of the tablets are now at the British Museum in London, although several are now on return loan at Vindolanda.

The artifacts on display are also remarkable; many well preserved examples or footwear, military items, working tools, ceramics, and painted glassware, as well as many perfectly preserved stone carvings of various types, religious, ceremonial, and domestic.

Tombstone of a wealthy woman

Why isn't he happier ?

Vindolanda is currently under active excavation, and when we arrived there were many archaeologists and volunteers at work outside, excavating some near areas of the camp. It's interesting to see what sort of state the Roman remains are found in in their 'raw' state, in this case a few lines of clear wall stones, a few troughs forming a gutter, and a lot of loose rubble. At some point these will presumably be "consolidated" into a form which the archaeologists believe to be a true representation of how the buildings were 1800 years ago, although quite how that is interpreted is something of a mystery to me.

Vindolanda - 2012 excavations

After leaving Vindolanda we headed back to the Twice Brewed Inn, where we're staying tonight. The pub and food are pretty good (6 real ales on tap), but the hotel is a bit of a wreck. I was given a single room over the kitchen, which is noisy, and was told that there were no better rooms, and even if there were I would be surcharged to move to another room. Many other complaints about the rooms (no TV, peeling paint etc) and shared shower rooms (uncontrollable scalding hot shower with blocked nozzles), but that would be petty. Oh, too late.

Milage total: 12.8 miles, including the Vindoland excursion.

Final Sean update: he finished today, and is now in Kirk Yetholm. He'd always planned to finish the walk in 16 days, and stuck to it, assisted by walking Cross Fell on a good weather day (when we were a day behind on High Cup) and merging a few shorter days together which we've kept separate (like today). His final day was the Byrness to Kirk Yetholm section, all 27 miles or it, starting at 6am this morning in the mist and cloud. Saffie was so tired that when he paused to change maps he found her curled up asleep at his feet.

By 4pm he still had another 9 miles to go, and was exhausted and limping. A mile from the end a farmer took pity on him and gave them a lift to the finish line.


If you would like to donate to the MND Association, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/PhilipJAWhite