Hadrian's Wall Path Day 2: Carlisle - Banks (26.5 km)

The region of Cumbria is renowned for its awful weather - even in a country renowned for its awful weather. I spent a blustery day in Carlisle yesterday, catching up on some work commitments, visiting the exhibition about Hadrian's Wall at the Tullie House Museum and attending Evensong in the Cathedral. Not to mention stocking up on 20 p packets of biscuits at the McVities factory outlet!

I set off this morning to continue on my way under a glowering sky, following a riverside trail frequented by joggers and dog walkers through Bitts Park, past a miniature recreation of the Wall with its Roman forts. From there I passed through Rickerby Park, where "tree surgeons" were busy clearing away damage caused by last week's storm, and cows (they're all over the place here) breakfasted on leaves from branches they wouldn't normally be able to reach!

Hadrian's Wall in miniature, for the lazy Wall-walker

It's getting closer!

Today I met many Wall-walkers, going in both directions. Unlike the pilgrimage routes, the Hadrian's Wall Path can be walked in either direction - though many recommend walking west to east, as I am doing, in the same direction as the prevailing winds. And prevail they do - I was very glad to be walking with the wind, and not against it, on this blustery day! 

Along the way I passed three or four self-service refreshment stations, offering cold drinks, a kettle for making tea, coffee and hot chocolate, cereal bars and other snacks, with a price list and an "honesty box" for payment. I stopped at a couple of them for a hot drink and a chat with other walkers.

In addition to other walkers, my constant companions are sheep and cattle. I'm now getting quite used to walking right in among them. They don't pay much attention to your passage. You just have to watch where you put your feet! 

More evidence of the presence of Hadrian's Wall appeared today. First of all, in the form of place names, such as Oldwall, Walton or Wallhead.

Passing through the village of Crosby-on-Eden, the trail follows the course of the Stanegate Road, an ancient Roman road predating Hadrian's Wall linking Carlisle with Cornbridge.

In Bleatarn, the path follows a rise in the land over the foundations of Hadrian's Wall. Beside it is a hollow where stone was quarried to build the Wall. 

Toward the end of the day the ground began to rise and fall in a foretaste of the rolling hills I expect to see in the two days to come. On the last of these rises, Hare Hill, stands the highest intact section of Hadrian's Wall, measuring three metres tall. 

Soon after this I came to Quarryside bed & breakfast, where I have happily retired to a hot bath and a room full of books!

Carlisle - Banks 26.5 km

Hadrian's Wall Path Day 1: Bowness-on-Solway to Carlisle (26 km)

1150 miles to Rome - Only 84 to Wallsend!

On Saturday my Dad and I completed the Annandale Way where the Annan River flows into the sea on the Scottish side of Solway Firth. We looked across the Firth into England. On the other side, right opposite Annan, is Bowness-on-Solway, the western terminus of Hadrian's Wall - and therefore the Hadrian's Wall Path. How could I resist the temptation?

There used to be a railway bridge across the Firth. It was only 1.8 km long, and after it was closed to railway traffic in 1921, when Scotland was dry on Sundays, people used to walk across the bridge to England "for a wee dram". Unfortunately the bridge was finally demolished in 1933, and so I couldn't walk across the Firth, but had to take a bus via Carlisle.

Looking across the Solway Firth, from the English shore towards Scotland

The Hadrian's Wall Path stretches across the country coast-to-coast, from the Irish Sea to the North Sea (or vice versa), tracing the path of Hadrian's Wall as closely as possible. Remnants of the Wall itself are to be seen mainly in the middle and eastern sections of the trail, as the western end of the Wall was built out of turf rather than stone due to a lack of limestone in the area for making mortar. But some remnants of Roman occupation are visible, and blocks of the local red sandstone cut to Roman specifications and used in the defensive turrets on the towers along the wall can be found incorporated into "newer", i.e. medieval buildings.

I took a bus out to Bowness-on-Solway, a village built on the site of the Roman fort of Maia, which stood at the end of the Wall. Several walkers got off the bus here, though they appeared to be day-trippers rather than long-distance walkers. We took photographs of each other at the start of the trail. As I waited for the King's Arms to open to go in and get a trail passport on which to collect souvenir stamps along the way, a taxi pulled up and three men emerged, wearing stout boots and slinging giant backpacks onto their shoulders. They must be walking all the way! And indeed they were, but when the King's Arms turned out to have run out of trail passports, they decided to do without and went on their way, while I successfully concluded my search at the Walls' End Tea Room, in the former rectory of St. Michael's Church, where I also picked up a souvenir T-shirt.

Now I really must walk the trail, so that I can wear it!

Bowness-on-Solway

St. Michael's Church in Bowness

No need to BUY apples at this time of year!

Shoes' end in Bowness

The stamping station/viewpoint at the trail head

The stamping station/viewpoint at the trail head

The trail follows the road out of Bowness, along the top of the tidal mud flats.

The first evidence of Roman occupation appears in a house in Port Carlisle with a fragment of a Roman altarpiece incorporated into the lintel over the door.

Barracks House in Glasson, just to the right of the Highland Laddie Pub, is "constructed of red standstone blocks to Roman wall specification", according to my Cicerone guidebook.

Barracks House

Drumburgh Castle, which is actually a fortified farmhouse - "burgh" (pronounced "bruff" locally) means "fortified", and can apply to anything from a house to a city - is another example of "the Wall in new form". The Wall and the fortifications along it became a handy source of ready-cut stone for the local construction industry once the Romans had gone. In the garden are two Roman altars found during excavations at Congavata, the Roman fort that once stood on the site.

Drumburgh "Castle"

The trail then crosses the Burgh Marshes alongside a minor road with more cattle than cars on it.

The Burgh Marshes

A reassuring sign

A reassuring rainbow!

St. Michael's Church in Burgh-on-Sands

St.Mary's Church, Kirkandrews 

St.Mary's Church in Kirkandrews is the only church to stand precisely on the site of Hadrian's Wall. Located on a rise in the ground, it was formerly a Norman castle, and before that a turret on the Roman wall. 

By this time I had been rejoined by my fellow walkers. I had overtaken them while they were lunching in the Greyhound Pub in Burgh, but, just as I was standing on the edge of a field dubiously eyeing a herd of very large cattle I had to walk right through, the three men in stout boots caught up with me and scattered the cattle, shouting and waving a stick. We walked together the rest of the way to Carlisle. 

My companions of the afternoon consult a map...

... climb over a stile...

,,, and cross a bull-less field. Good thing, as two of them were wearing red jackets!

Here too I was glad I was no longer alone!
Though it turned out there was no bull in the field after all

The last part of the walk into Carlisle is along the riverside path. Once we came to the city park, my companions and I split up to reach our respective accommodations. 

Visitors to Carlisle are greeted upon arrival by the delicious aroma of freshly baked Digestive Biscuits, as the city has been home to a McVities biscuit factory (originally Carr's, as in Carr's Table Water Crackers) since 1831, making it the oldest biscuit factory in the world, as well as one of the biggest. 

The Carlisle McVities factory

Carlisle Castle

Carlisle Castle

The historic town centre

Abbey Street, where Carlisle City Hostel is

Bowness-on-Solway to Carlisle: 26 km

The Hadrian's Wall Path: an overall view

Annandale Way Day 4: Ecclefechan - Annan

We started our walk today at Hoddom Castle: our kind hostess at the Ecclefechan Hotel volunteered to drive us out to pick up the trail there as soon as she had finished serving breakfast. Now in ruins, the castle would have been a fun place to stay when it was briefly a youth hostel, before being requisitioned for military use in the Second World War. The castle is now derelict, though there is a caravan park outside its walls.

Hoddom Castle

Hoddom Castle in its days of former splendour

We followed the Annan all day, through the woods, past an ancient graveyard, and then across fields, where cattle had made the track rather muddy in spots!
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More storm damage

In the town of Annan, we visited the little museum to learn more about local history and search for records of our family name; we didn't find any, but we did find plenty of interesting files of old photographs recording life in the town and the nearby villages.

After lunching on a pint and a packet of crisps at the Blue Bell Pub, we left our bags at our bed and breakfast and walked the last five kilometres of the Annandale Way, to the mouth of the river in the Solway Firth, the inlet forming the border between England and Scotland.

Annan

Rowanbank House

Continuing along the River Annan

The mouth of the Annan

Solway Firth

As we came to the sea it started to rain, but just when as reached the cairn marking the end of the trail the sun came out!

The end of the Annandale Way!

Hoddom Castle - Annan - Solway Firth and back to Annan 20.5 km

Total over 4 days: 85 km