Day 9 - Carlisle to Bowness-on-Solway

We walked 17 miles today.  We made it!

Robert, Sharon, Dave & Carol at end of Hadrian's Wall trail.

Courtfield Guest House

We got an early start from the Courtfield Guest House in Carlisle.  We were on the trail at 8:15, walking through the streets of Carlisle to the Sands Center to join the trail and stamp our Hadrian's Wall Passports.  The day was grey and threatened rain.  When we got back on the trail, the path followed along the River Eden.  It was green and lovely, sprinkled with a bit of rain.  We left the city of Carlisle pretty quickly and it was nice to be back in the countryside.  

We walked along the river and on country roads, with rain threatening, but never materializing.  As always, there were some beautiful flowers.  We still were surrounded with sheep and cattle too.  

We came to the village of Burgh-on-Sands around noon and stopped in at the Norman church.  Hadrian's Wall has largely disappeared in this part of the country because the population was so good at "recycling."  Many of the churches and castles have stones from the wall.  This one is no different.  As we entered, a woman greeted us and told us a lot about the history of the building.  This particular church was built in the 12th century, with addition in the 13th and 14th centuries.  This area was home of English and Scottish raiding bands for 300 years, so the church was built for protection as much as worship.  It was around lunch time and she suggested that we stop by the tearoom, just up the street.  

Ice creams available at the Rosemount Tearoom

What a find!  We stopped for lunch at the Rosemount Tearoom.  We were initially intrigued by the listing of the ice cream flavors.  We never did find out what a Nobbly Bobbly or Vimto Jubbly was!  This was a simple little one-cook shop in a house along the lane.  We all had soup or sandwiches and finished with cakes (lemon, orange, carrot and rocky road).  It was all fresh, homemade and delicious.  We are ready to hit the trail once again!  

Rosemount Tearoom

Laal Bite Tuckshop

The weather cleared and we walked on in sunshine.  We had reference points (gatherings of houses or crossroads) about every 30 minutes.  First, Dykesfield, where we needed to check the board posting tidal information to be sure we could get across the flats.  Our timing is good.

On to Boustead Hill, a long flat march along the marsh.  We still see cows and sheep grazing in the marsh grass.  Past the turn for Easton and on to Drumburgh.  At Drumburgh, we stopped in at Laal Bite Tuckshop.  This is another "honesty" shop with cold drinks, coffee, crisps and candy bars available.  You are asked to leave money for whatever you take.  Robert had an ice cream and we all used the restroom facilities.

Now to Glasson, Port Carlisle and finally Bowness-on-Solway.  At 4:50pm, we reached the end of the trail.  We all felt great!  No one was totally spent. Only Carol has a few blisters on her feet.  Celebration all around!

Robert at the Wall's End!

Day 8 - Walton to Carlisle

Today is Indy's 21st birthday!

We walked 8.63 miles to arrive in Carlisle.  We walked around town to bring the total to 12 miles for the day.  The trail guide said 11 miles today, but our hostess dropped us off in Newtown, rather than Walton, to start our walk today.

Oakwood Park Hotel

We all enjoyed the stay at Oakwood Park Hotel.  Our breakfast was served at 8:30am, a bit later than our usual 7:30am.  It was generous and delicious!  We got underway about 9:40, being dropped off at Newtown by Wendy.  Rain is predicted, but the day started overcast, cool and dry.

The track is through fields, but very flat.  The scenery is nicely pastoral, but not the spectacular views from the crags.  We have left the wall behind too, so there are not a lot of stops for poking around.  That means we made really good time!  We came upon this Stall-on-the-Wall.  A box of snacks, with payment on the honor system.

The rain came and went, but nothing too much.  Each time someone would put on a rain jacket or rain pants, the rain would stop for awhile.  Our route into Carlisle took us along the River Eden.  It was a lovely walk, even in the rain.

By shortly after 1pm, we had made it to our destination for the night, Courtfield Guest House in Carlisle.  Our hostess was kind enough to let us check in early, so we dried off, had lunch with apples, granola bars and cookies, rested a bit, wished Indy a Happy Birthday and set off to explore the sights of Carlisle.

We started at the Tullie House Museum to see the Roman exhibit and the reivers exhibit.  We enjoyed the Roman exhibit since we had seen much of the same in the past few days.  They did have some new interpretations and did a good job of providing context for the artifacts.  The museum is more about the Carlisle area than just Hadrian's Wall, so we learned more of the history of this area.  Because this city is so close to Scotland and the borderlands, there is a long history of raiding back and forth between England and Scotland.  For about 300 years, this was truly a lawless place.  The city was under siege by various parties from time to time.

From the museum, we visited Carlisle Castle.  With all that raiding, there needed to be a safe place to hole up when needed.  The castle was built in the 12th century and had stood the test of time.  Our last stop on the sight-seeing tour was the cathedral.  Built in 1133 by Augustinian priors, it is a lovely church.  As we entered, an Evensong service was being held.  It was wonderful to walk around to the sounds of organ and the choir.

As we walked back to the Courtfield Guest House, we stopped in at an Italian restaurant for dinner.  We felt that we should continue the Roman theme of our trip.  The dinner was fine, but nothing outstanding.

We have seen beautiful flowers in this land of cool temperatures and constant moisture.  We ran across giant poppies this morning.

Large poppies.  Robert's hand for scale.

Clematis.  Sharon's hands for scale.

This clematis is on the wall of our guest house.




Tomorrow is our last day of walking.  We need to pay attention to the tides and hope to get an early start since we saw the sights of Carlisle today.  The pace should be fairly fast, like today, since it is pretty flat.

Day 7 - Gilsland to Walton

We walked 10 miles today.  Our trail guide said 8, but we added a couple of miles to visit Lanercost Priory.

Howard Hill Farm in Gilsland

We left Howard Hill Farm about 9am, with the sun shining in a clear blue sky.  What a lovely morning for a walk!  Our breakfast was substantial and delicious, as we have come to expect.  Helen assured us that it was a true Cumbrian breakfast--eggs, sausage & bacon were all from local sources.

Roman bridge abutment over Irthing river

The fields of sheep and cows were again part of our route.  We started by seeing a Roman bridge abutment built to cross the Irthing river outside of Gilsland.  The river's course has shifted, so the stones are on dry land.  We crossed a modern bridge and climbed to see another milecastle.  We stopped to chat with a local Gilsland resident and his very cute Borders terrier named Buster.  On we walked to Birdoswald, another Roman fort.  This site is partially excavated, but also became part of a home in the subsequent centuries.  There was an interpretative museum that was OK, but nothing that we haven't seen before.  Dave and Carol picked up sandwiches for lunch and Robert got an ice cream at the tea room.

Walking across the countryside, we were blessed with sunshine, a few clouds, but no rain.  It continued to be a very enjoyable day to walk.  We walked into Banks, took a brief detour to Lanercost but decided against this route and returned to our path.  We were rewarded with a lovely chunk of the wall.  We stopped to have lunch in the shadow of the wall.  We had cobbled together our lunches from purchased sandwiches, chips (crisps), cookies and apples provided by earlier hostesses, granola bars, etc.  It was a delightful picnic.
 
On we trekked to a more clearly marked turn to Lanercost Priory.  We hiked 1/2 mile south of our path to visit this priory built in 1166.  It was a Augustinian priory (kind of like a monastery) until being dissolved by Henry VIII in the 1530's.  It also became a family home and the church was preserved.  The church is still operating today and has textiles and stained glass designed by William Morris in the 1880's.  Other parts of the site are in ruins but fun to poke around in.  The woman running the gift shop was very knowledgeable and happy to share info with us.

Waiting on the green in Walton

We returned to our path by a route suggested by our new gift shop friend and had a splendid walk for about an hour into Walton.  Both our tour company and our hostess last night had told us about a tea shop near the Walton's green that is run by local ladies, but unfortunately it was not open on Sunday afternoon.  We didn't have to walk to our lodging tonight, but called the car service provided by our tour company to collect us and deliver us to Oakwood Park Hotel.

This is our most luxurious lodging so far.  The large Victorian house has extensive grounds and is lavishly furnished.  Our bedrooms and baths are quite large and have all the usual supplies (shampoo, conditioner, bath gel) plus a few others.  A warm soak in the large tub was quite the ticket when we arrived off the trail.  Carol and Dave wandered around to visit the chickens, turkey and geese.

We were picked up again by Brampton Cars to go to dinner at the Blacksmith Arms in Talkin.  Brendan, a talkative Irishman, was our driver.  Dinner was wonderful, once again.  Robert had a seafood pie, Dave liver and onions, Carol cannoli and I had lasagne.  We split three desserts between the four of us -- mint ice cream sundae, sticky ginger pudding with custard and apple/blackberry crumble with ice cream.  We all felt fat and happy.  No walk home tonight.  Brendan returned to pick us up and entertain us for the ride back to Oakwood Park Hotel.

Two more days of walking.  The weather doesn't look as good for tomorrow, but we'll see.

Typical sign post that we look for as we follow the trail