Date: 25/06/2015 From: Housesteads Parking: Housesteads Roman Fort Start Point: Housesteads Roman Fort (Vercovicivm) Region: Northumberland National Park
Route length: 10.3 miles (16.6 km) Time taken: 04:10 Average speed: 2.5 mph Ascent: 650m Descent: 657m
Summits on this walk:
Hotbank Crags (327m), Highshield Crags (283m), Peel Crags (278m), Winshield Crags (345m)
Other points of interest: Housesteads Fort, Hadrian's Wall, Milecastle 37, Sycamore Gap, Vindolanda Fort
A walk with a slightly more historical theme for you now, with some stunning views to boot. We spent a week up in Northumberland savouring its peace and quiet while also cramming in a number of the highlights that can be found across the county. One of these is Hadrian's Wall (Vallum Aelium), the 2nd Century Roman wall built as a defensive line at the limit of the Roman Empire in Britain. The fact that it was 80 miles long is impressive enough but add to that the fact it only took six years to build and parts are still standing 2,000 years later is astounding. It is a wonderful place to explore and it is best explored on foot.
It's easy enough to do a linear walk in the summer thanks to the AD122 bus that runs up and down the wall all day. However, the cost of £12 for the ticket put us off somewhat so we devised a sort of circuit that would see arguably the most impressive and intact sections of Hadrian's Wall. We parked at the National Trust visitor centre at Housesteads fort for a much more agreeable fee of £4 for the day and set off in search of some history.
Housesteads Fort (Verovicivm - the place of the effective fighters) was built shortly after the Wall to maintain a Roman force of 800 men. It is built on a high escarpment and commands a panoramic view to the north. What remains is the most complete example of a Roman Fort in the country as well as being home to one of the best-preserved latrines. We followed a footpath around the edge of the fort up onto the wall and began our westwards route along the escarpments of the Whin Sill.
Housesteads Fort
Grain storage in Housesteads
The Housesteads latrines
A low flying Chinook adds some entertainment
Sewingshields Crags
The Whin Sill is a tabular layer of dolerite and is one of the key natural features of the North Pennines. Many ancient landmarks including Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Lindisfarne take strategic advantage of the high cliff lines that the sill forms. The best explanation is this diagram from The Geological Society.
In reality, it looks like this:
The Wall atop Housesteads Crags
This photo was taken just above Milecastle 37 and shows the most dramatic (and photographed) section of Hadrian's Wall. It is only a short distance from Housesteads Fort so, if you're visiting, I'd highly recommend it. Incidentally, the path we were following forms part of the Hadrian's Wall Path, an 84-mile coast to coast walk right along the length of the Wall.
The gate at Milecastle 37
Milecastle 37
Hotbank Crags
The Wall at Cuddy's Crags
We continued on across the top of Hotbank Crags and down to Hotbank Farm, prior to an exciting crossing of Highshield Crags to Steel Rigg. Below the crags is Crag Lough, an inland lake that was formed during the last ice age, which can be seen by looking down the near-vertical crags of Highshield. Nestling in a depression between the outcrops is Sycamore Gap.
The Wall running across the top of Hotbank Crags
Crossing to Highshield Crags
Highshield Crags above Crag Lough
Highshield Crags
Crag Lough
Sycamore Gap is located at Milecastle 39 and is impressive in its own right, a lone Sycamore tree standing almost dead centre of the depression, though it was used in a scene from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves which is where most people may recognise it from. It, along with Milecastle 37, is probably the most photographed section of the Wall.
Approaching Sycamore Gap
Sycamore Gap
Sycamore Gap
Sycamore Gap with a bit of photo trickery
Beyond Sycamore Gap is another outcrop, this one called Peel Crags which continues for a few hundred metres before dramatically falling away to Peel, taking the wall with it. From here you can look back along a vast length of the Whin Sill.
Milecastle 39
Peel Crags
The remains of a turret at Peel
Peel Crags
Peel Crags
A slow incline climbs up the slopes of Winshield Crags, the highest point of the day. The Romans obviously thought this was a fine vantage point, as did the Ordnance Survey as a trig pillar marks the highest point. From this point, we could look into the depths of the Kielder Forest to the north, wary of any invading northerners. We could also see that the weather was starting to deteriorate so we began a short descent down to Winshields farm to start our return back towards Housesteads.
Sara makes the climb up Winshield Crags
Looking down towards Peel Crags and Crag Lough
Trig pillar on Winshield Crags
The Vallum can clearly be seen in the distance
We crossed the B6318 to the open farmland on the south side of the Wall. The area is littered with the remnants of Roman camps and settlements including the very obvious Vallum.
The Vallum is a unique feature unlike any other across the Roman frontier and runs parallel to Hadrian's Wall. It comprised of a ditch, 6 metres wide and 3 metres deep, with a flat bottom, flanked by two mounds about 6 metres wide and 2 metres high, set back some 9 metres from the ditch edges, a formidable feature on its own, let alone behind a stone wall.
We climbed a shallow rise to Seatsides, crossing the line of the Roman Stanegate Road that once ran from Corbridge to Carlisle. At Seatsides, after it had started to rain, we descended again through the woods at Kit's Shield to emerge at Vindolanda, another prominent Roman Fort.
The Vallum
Heading for Seatsides
The Whin Sill on the horizon
Vindolanda
A replica of Hadrian's Wall in Vindolanda
Formerly a key military post on the northern frontier of Britain, Vindolanda is the home of Britain's 'Top Treasure' - the Vindolanda Writing Tablets. The writing tablets are delicate, wafer-thin slivers of wood covered in ink writing, the tablets were found in the oxygen-free deposits on and around the floors of the deeply buried early wooden forts at Vindolanda and are the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.
The Vindolanda Writing tablets in the British Museum
As the rain subsided, we continued up the hill to the B6318 again meeting the Vallum as the road unceremoniously ploughed straight through it. We were still a couple of miles from Housesteads and, after deciding the road was too busy to walk along, we detoured off back to the Wall at Hotbank Crags and walked back along the best section between Hotbank and Housesteads. As a friend of mine said recently 'you can't have too much wall'. And that's a fact.
Roman milepost near Vindolanda
Thorngrafton Common
Farm at Hotbank
The Wall atop Hotbank Crags
Hadrian's Wall is the most popular tourist attraction in the North East and rightly so, it's absolutely fascinating. This short section contains many of the highlights and some of the classic views that you will come across browsing the web. There are places where you can literally walk on the same stone floors that Roman soldiers did nearly 2,000 years ago which is pretty amazing. If the history wasn't enough, the dramatic scenery only adds to the spectacle of this small area of Northumberland.
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Route: North Sunderland, Coast Path, North Cottage, Saddlershall, Fowberry, Ingram Burn, Redbarns, Bamburgh, Bamburgh Castle, Islestone, Greenhill Rocks, Monks House Rocks, St. Aidan's Dunes, North Sunderland
Date: 24/06/2015 From: North Sunderland
Parking: Roadside in North Sunderland Start Point: North Sunderland Region: Northumberland
Route length: 7.9 miles (12.7 km) Time taken: 03:06 Average speed: 2.5 mph Ascent: 185m Descent: 183m
Points of interest: Northumberland Coastal Path, Bamburgh Castle, Monks House
We spent a week staying in Seahouses, a small fishing village in Northumberland, most famous for its daily trips to the Farne Islands, a wildlife refuge owned by the National Trust known for its profusion of nesting seabirds. I'll add some photos of those later.
As a border county, Northumberland has more castles than any other part of England. While some of these are ruins, many still stand as very impressive monuments to the Border past and one of these is Bamburgh Castle, one of the largest inhabited castles in the country and only a short three-mile walk from the cottage we were staying in. The perfect excuse for a summer stroll.
Running through the village is the Northumberland Coast Path, a 64-mile long-distance walk from Druridge Bay in the south to Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north. We would follow it between Seahouses and Bamburgh, crossing through green open fields that characterise the County. St. Oswald's Way also uses the same stretch of the coastal path.
The Coast Path is well signposted
The path cuts across a number of fields
Oswald, a 7th Century king of Northumberland, is credited with spreading Christianity through the region and was once the most powerful ruler in Britain until his death at the Battle of Maserfield. The 97 miles route of St. Oswald's Way recalls the life and importance of the king who travelled extensively through this countryside.
We passed the back of Shoreston Hall, before following a hedge-lined lane around the fields to a farm called Fowberry. The view of Bamburgh Castle opened up ahead of us, it sitting on a commanding rock outcrop. Here, the coastal route heads back across fields until it eventually reaches the village of Bamburgh and Bamburgh Castle itself. Here's a potted history.
Shoreston Hall
The walled lane from Shoreston Hall
St. Oswald's Way is waymarked along with the Coast Path
Bamburgh Castle appears on the horizon
A mono shot of a line of trees
The Farne Islands
Bamburgh Castle
Bamburgh Castle is built on an outcrop of dolerite and dates back as far as 420AD when it acted as a fortress of the native Britons known as Din Guarie though this original fort was destroyed by the Vikings in 993AD. The Normans built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one.
After 1095 the castle became the property of the monarchy and many of the features we can see today were constructed, including the keep. The Forster family of Northumberland provided the Crown with twelve successive governors of the castle for some 400 years until the Crown granted ownership to Sir John Forster. The family retained ownership until Sir William Forster was posthumously declared bankrupt, and his estates, including the castle, were sold to Lord Crew, Bishop of Durham under an Act of Parliament.
The castle deteriorated but was restored by various owners during the 18th and 19th centuries before it was finally bought by the Victorian industrialist William Armstrong, who completed the restoration. The castle still belongs to the Armstrong family and is today open to the public.
The entrance gate
Battery Terrace
Battery Terrace
The Keep
The Inner Ward
We spent a couple of hours having a wander through the buildings and around the grounds of the grand castle until we felt the need to stop off for a cake and a coffee at a nearby café. Satisfied, we made our way back towards the castle and onto the wide expanse of sandy beach that would act as our motorway back to Seahouses.
The dunes at Bamburgh Castle
Bamburgh Castle
With the tide being well out, we were able to walk the entire way to Seahouses on the beach, passing over Greenhill Rocks and Monks House Rocks on the way. Monks House Rocks get their name from the nearby Monks House, a bird observatory that was owned by naturalist Eric Ennion and his wife during the 1950s when bird migration was at the forefront of ornithological study. What better place to study than opposite the Farne Islands?
Bamburgh Castle dominates the beach
The beach at Bamburgh
The beach at Bamburgh
Greenhill Rocks
Greenhill Rocks
Monks House
The Farne Islands
I did promise some pictures of birds earlier so here are a handful of the best ones from our trip a few days earlier.
Puffin
Arctic Tern
Grey Seal
Guillemots
Puffin at sea
Puffin
Puffin
The threat of invasion hangs over the Northumberland coast and is not only evident by the number of castles and fortifications but also the lonely 1940s pillboxes that line the beaches, forming the General Headquarters Line around the UK - the last line of defence against a German invasion. It was hoped that troops in pillboxes could hold off the invaders long enough for other mobile troops to arrive and counterattack. Luckily, this was never tested but some of the pillboxes remain to serve as a reminder of this dark period in our history.
Monks House Rocks
A pillbox defends the beach
We rounded off the walk with a short walk back through the fields and between the caravan parks that separate Seahouses from the smaller North Sunderland. This was a walk with a totally different character than one's I've been used to of late and good practice for an upcoming charity walk across Morecambe Bay. Northumberland is a place I'd highly recommend visiting.
