Day 4 - Hallbarns to Vallum Lodge (Chesters to Once Brewed)

Hallbarns - our B&B

We walked 11 miles today.

We had a lovely breakfast at Hallbarns, our B&B.  We had invited Jay, another walker, to join us for breakfast.  He is going the same direction on the path as we are, but doing the trail in 7 days rather than our 10.  Delicious food, once again.  We all got packed lunches to eat on the trail.  Getting the packed lunches is a bit like being on the receiving end of all the school lunches that I've packed over the years.  It is always a treat to see what is in the bag.

Rather than walk back to the trail from Hallbarns, we were happy to have our host drop us back on the trail.  We started our morning at Black Carts, where we saw a large chunk of the wall.  The weather prediction is no rain for the day, but we all have on our rain jackets. The day turned out to be wet, but not nearly as much real rain as the day before. Still, parts of the trail were muddy and we were glad for rain pants and gaiters.

Hadrian's Wall at Black Carts

Very soon, we reached Limestone Corner, the northernmost point of our walk and the northernmost point of the Roman Empire in Hadrian's time.  Walking along the trail, we have a good view of the ditch dug on the north side of the wall and we can look south to see the Vallum clearly too.

In about an hour, we reached Brocolitia Roman Fort. This fort is unexcavated, so is really just bumps of earth.  The more interesting excavation is Mithras Temple, excavated and open to the skies and viewing.  There are alters set up, but these are reproductions.  The originals are in a museum in Newcastle. While looking at the temple, we were joined by a Danish couple who were staying at the same B&B as we were last night.  They are trying to "follow Hadrian all over Europe."

Mithras Temple

As we left the temple to return to the path, the way was quite muddy.  I stepped on what I thought was a rock to cross a boggy area and sunk my left foot to the shin in mud.  Once again, I said "thank you" to Steve Saunders for recommending the high gaiters!  My shoe and gaiter were quite muddy, but my foot stayed dry.

Milecastle - notice reconstructed Roman arch over gateway

We came upon ruins and excavations of turrets and milecastles.  Part of the wall construction, milecastles were placed at every mile along the route.  These were "gates" that could control the flow of traffic through the wall.  There were usually 10 men stationed here, so there are living facilities in addition to the gate.  Between each milecastle are two turrets.  The turrets were basically "lookout stations" along the way.

The defensive ditch also ends in this area.  We are walking into the "crags" or cliffs across the English landscape.  The Romans realized the 1) the rock is really hard to cut or dig a ditch into and 2) the cliffs form a natural barrier that is even more formidible than the ditch.  Our path takes us up and over these crags.  The views are truly breathtaking! We all feel like we are on top of the world!

We stopped for another damp lunch in the woods atop Sewingshields Crags.  We spread our waterproof picnic blanket on the soggy ground and looked north, tranfixed by the view.  Our ham sandwiches (Carol took off the ham) were quite delicious.  It started raining just as we were finishing up.  We covered our packs, put on rain gear and set off.  We can see Bromlee Lough (a big lake) to the northwest and more incredible views. There are pieces of wall here and there.  We climbed up and down some more crags (Dave & Carol found ways "around" that didn't involve so much climbing) and arrived at Housesteads.

Shortly after 1pm, we reached Housesteads.  This is the best of the excavated Roman forts along the wall.  In addition to the Roman ruins, the site itself is lovely.  There are incredible views to both the north and the south here. The fort is laid out in the same pattern as Segedunum and Chesters, with the administrative building in the middle and barracks and living quarters on the side.  It reminds me a bit of coming upon Manchu Pichu and seeing the extensive ruins, but being able to imagine the daily life of the people who lived here.

We were hoping for a tearoom to rest and warm up, as well as toilet facilities.  The toilets were porta-potties and the tearoom was an automatic tea machine, but we made do.  We watched a short film about the site and spent about an hour poking around.

Apparently, school children in Britain have this week off from school.  At Chesters, we saw part of a cavalry demonstration which then involved getting kids involved in some horse-related activities (using stick horses).  At Housesteads, we saw a "centurion" in uniform giving kids a "solders' training" school.  They had sticks and shields to work with.

We spent the rest of the day walking up and down the crags and enjoying the spectacular scenery.  There are many portions of Hadrian's Wall standing in place.  Much of the wall along this portion of the path was preserved by one man, John Clayton, in the mid-1800s.  He realized the value of this Roman artifact, which was being destroyed by local farmers and builders carrying off the convenient building materials.  He bought up large portions of the land where the wall was located and attempted to preserve it.  In places he rebuilt the wall.

Shortly after 4pm, we descended from our last crag of the day (Peel Crags) to arrive at Once Brewed.  Our lodging for the next two days will be Vallum Lodge in Once Brewed.  After resting a bit at the B&B, we walked back to Twice Brewed Pub for dinner.  We met Jay from Richmond at the bar!  He joined us for dinner and we all commiserated about the damp walking today (but better than the rain the day before).  He continues on in the morning, but we get a day off the trail to rest a bit at Vallum Lodge.  Dinner was delicious!  Robert had meat pie, I had sausage (pork & leek), Dave had beef and Carol had fish.  All was really tasty!  Robert had Mint Sizzle for dessert--Mint chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and chocolate chips.  I had double butterscotch ice cream.

Off the bed and looking forward to being off the trail tomorrow!