Hadrian Wall Path — Day 3
Crosby-on-Eden to Birdoswald, 19km
Today was the longest segment on the Hadrian Wall Path (HWP). We made it the longest, since we condenses the first 4 walking days into 3 days to allow us to complete the trail in 9 days instead of 10.
We actually ended up walking for 21km, given some side trips to a Cafe and more.
The “Corina Squad” walked even more. In memory of the TMB variants, they invented a local variant to a castle off-path. I take responsibility for not assigning someone to distract Corina from seeking off-path attractions.
Starting at Crosby-on-Eden, it was 6.5 flat kms to the Hadrian Wall Snack stop at Newtown. Recommended with coffee, tea, snacks, ice cream and more. No toilets. The trail is wide, easy and it’s green pastures and cow poop everywhere.
Three kms later, in Walton, we took a short 200m detour to the Walton Reading Room Cafe. Well set with inside and outside seating, the coffee was great and we spent at least half an hour there. If you come to think that we are only here for the coffee and food, you are right. Unfortunately, one needs to walk between these places.
After a long wait we encountered today the first two climbs of the Hadrian Wall Path, the steeper one was to Craggle Hill, a merely 133 meters high.
But the more important “first” of today was the first sight of the remains of the Hadrian Wall. Lots of remains. See photos.
From Walton it was 4km to our first encounter with the wall, at Banks. After a short break we continued another 3km through the remains of the wall signal tower to the Geltsdale Nature reserve where a Roman Quarry used to stand. After a very short break, it was 2 more km to the Birdoswald castle, passport stamping (more on this next time), and the end of the trail for the day.
Today was also a hotel move, as we moved from the hotel in Carlisle to the beautifully situated George Hotel in Chollerford, near Hexham. It’s a large hotel with an awesome garden, and at least the rooms we are in are nice, despite the hotel bad reviews.
