Northumberland - Days 8 & 9 - Hexham and Hadrian's Wall

Day 8 - Monday

A bright sunny start to the week. We left Bellingham after a quick walk into town to get Mitzi checked out at the vet as she was lame.  So much walking probably and she got a clean bill of health and some anti inflammatories with instructions to walk her on the lead for a few days so she does not leap off things!

To rest a bit we when to Hexham the largest town en-route to the campsite at Hadrian's Wall.

Hexham was a nice town, dominated by an old abbey mostly 11th century. The town centre has some nice quirkly shops.  Hexham has been attacked and ransacked by the Scottish (both William Wallace and Robert the Bruce), was the site of a battle in the War of the Roses and the site of many uprisings. Perhaps it is not surprising that "Hexham" was used in the Borders as a euphemism for "Hell"!  It seems to have calmed down a bit now!

We shopped for food but ended up with some new clothes as well (!), and had a picnic by the river.

Our home for the next 3 nights is Hadrian's Wall Campsite an independent site near Haltwhistle.  On arrival we were greeted by the friendly owner and given a choice of pitches.  We selected a north westerly facing site looking towards Hadrian's Wall.

After setting up

and a cup of tea we decided we must go and get our first sight of the wall.  I was really quite excited. The wall was not disappointing and we walked to a point called Caw Gap. Super country!

Dinner was paella (the Cadac is excellent).

Day 9 - Wall Walk

After some discussion over dinner the prior evening we had decided to get the bus from near the campsite to Housesteads Fort and walk back.  This is exactly what we did.

Some wall facts...

Hadrian's Wall marked the northern limit of the Roman Empire. It was started in AD122, took 6 years to finish. It is the largest Roman archaeological feature anywhere, it runs a total of 73 miles and it does not mark the border between England and Scotland. The wall has what are known as milecastles every mile and there would have been forts every 5 miles near the wall.

The morning was a bit overcast but the sun quickly burnt off the light cloud and we had a glorious walk with a picnic midway at a place called Steel Rigg which had amazing views.  We reached the highest point on the wall at Winshield

and walked to Caw Gap which is the point we reached the prior evening.

And here is Mitzi and Luna enjoying the walk!

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