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The Hadrian’s wall walk, was opened to the public in 2003. It was the first time since the 3rd century, that it was possible to walk the full length of Hadrian’s wall.
Frank and I returned to complete the walk (84 miles) using b+b accommodation, and a delivery service to move bags, and enable a fast and light strategy (a previous attempt at camping, had already failed). Here we are photographed at Segedendum fort, the start of the walk. |
| The first 12 miles of the walk are coated with tarmac, which means trainers are recommended. Also, since it passes through housing estates, the scenery isn’t up to much either (that’s why we walked east to west, as finishing the walk, walking through a shipyard, wasn’t really what we had in mind).
The walk then passes right through the center of Newcastle, and passes under all 5 bridges across the river tyne. |
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The walk was quite hard going, with an average of 22 miles being walked each day (we had decided to complete the walk in 4 days). |
| As stated earlier, Hadrian’s Wall is new, and accommodation is limited along the way (most of the places we stayed were big hotels, and very expensive.
Another thing unique about the walk, is that its only supposed to be walked in summer, to preserve the wall. Sometimes part of the wall will be worn out, and wooden devices like this, are used to stop people walking across specific parts of the turf. |
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The wall was built almost completely by Roman soldiers. A ditch was built into the design, to make it hard for advancing soldiers to attack (they would end up charging up hill, against a 15 foot wall.
Here, Frank stands in a surviving part of the ditch. |
| The Bridge at Chollerford, taken from the George hotel where we stayed. |  |
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The place where the Pennine Way, crosses Hadrian’s Wall. |
| Section of the wall, with the Oak Tree, featured in Robin Hood prince of thieves.
Robin (Kevin Costner) dances around on the wall at one point, before getting into a fight with some soldiers. Its presently forbidden to walk on the wall, although we saw plenty of parents allowing their children to do it. Not sure what Robin Hood was thinking, but a journey from Dover to Nottingham, wouldn’t normally involve crossing a wall near the England/Scotland border !. |
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Bridge at Poltross Burn. It was this 84 foot bridge, that marked the completion of Hadrian’s Wall walk, replacing the broken wooden bridge that went before it.
It was built by the same company that made the famous Angel of the North Sculpture in the North East. |
| A view of several sections of the wall. You can see about 6 continuous miles of the wall, from one point near Steel Rig. |  |
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The road out to Bowness on Solway, was an incredible length, and ran in an almost completely straight line. |
| The walk completed, we got the bus back to Carlisle (the only one that day, and it left 6 minutes after we arrived, which was exciting) and then the train home. |  |