Dia duit agus fáilte – that’s Irish for hello and welcome – to my blog. Today, I want to share with you the details of our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall in 2024.
I love to walk but my husband is less of a fan. He loves to hike up mountains, cycle and travel but a walking holiday took a bit of convincing. In 2022, my sister wanted to walk the Camino Português (the three sisters had completed the Camino Inglés in 2016) and we needed to sweettalk Tom into joining us. Well, just a few days in, he was thoroughly enjoying himself and, despite having to miss a few stages of the walk due to pain, he immediately suggested more walking holidays.
Because my sisters (one Brit, one Aussie and I’m an Irish lass living in the US) live on different continents, we often travel and meet up. For our 2024 get-together, we decided to explore (parts of) Ireland, Scotland and England so choosing to add an 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall was a no-brainer.
If you are thinking about or planning your own walk along Hadrian’s Wall, (or really any long distance walking holiday) please check out this post to check out our top tips for walking Hadrian’s Wall
This post is not written specifically for people with chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases but because this is what I live with, every post I write takes these factors into account. The two biggest things that cause RA flare-ups for me are stress and insomnia. When I’m traveling, I have learned to pay close attention to my mental state (to minimize stress) which includes having a plan, feeling informed and choosing the best accommodations and food that we can afford. It also means I need to make adjustments and include extra self-care, including massages when possible, a daily yoga practice and no evening sweet treats.
Taking into account our own needs and preferences and, after lots of research, we made 2 big decisions about the walk:
- We would walk from west to east. The prevailing winds would be behind us, the uphills would be harder but the downhills less precarious for me and we would arrive in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where we would catch up with the sisters again.
- We also decided to take longer than many blogs suggest. We are neither mountain goats nor galloping horses. We wanted to enjoy the sites along the way and treat our bodies gently. If I were to do the walk again, I would stretch it to 9 or even 10 days.
Table of Contents
Overview of our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall
We began the walk on June 3rd 2024, and I created (and printed) a fairly detailed itinerary for each day. I noted the name and address, including postal code, for every accommodation along the way. For each day, I had calculated mileage (usually an underestimate!!) and also included possible lunch stops as restaurants and pubs can be quite spread out or non-existent along certain stretches of the Wall. I had also researched the tourist and historical sites we wanted to visit along the way.
Every evening we reviewed the following day’s plans, checked the map app (we mostly used All Trails) and decided what time we would eat breakfast and hit the trail. My notes had also captured any specific tasks to be done for the next day. Several of the accommodation hosts recommended making reservations for dinner and we made a booking if needed for the following evening. Two evenings, we needed to arrange a taxi for the following morning.
I am definitely a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of lass but I’m really glad I wrote this detailed plan as it made for much less stress and worry throughout the whole 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall. And who wants stress when they’re on their holliers???
Day 1: Bowness to (almost) Carlisle
We had spent our anniversary weekend in Glasgow and selected a morning train that put us into Carlisle late morning. We walked from the train to the bus station where we caught the #93 bus out to Bowness-on-Solway for the first 12 miles of our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall. The bus only goes 3 times a day, in each direction, so either plan around the timetable or plan to take a taxi out to the coast. The bus was £2 each, a taxi could be upwards of £30/€36/US
The final part of the bus ride is along the Solway estuary with its wide tidal flats and gorgeous views of Scotland. Day 1 was one of two dry days on our walk!! The bus dropped us conveniently at The King’s Arms where we had lunch before heading off on our merry way. This was actually a great way to schedule out the day and meant we were walking with full tummies in the warm (65F/18C) afternoon sun.
We begin our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall
The first part of the walk is along roads though we were often able to walk on the grassy verge which is certainly a less painful way to break in your legs and feet. Two weeks before we arrived, some of the roads had flooded and I’m not sure how passable they were. There were cows grazing along both sides of the road though thankfully we did not have any uncomfortable run-ins (yet!)
We enjoyed St Michael’s Church from the outside and walked through small villages though didn’t pass any shops or cafés until The Greyhound Inn (7 miles from Bowness.) The afternoon was delightfully warm – a watery sunshine and cool breeze made conditions perfect for a long walk. We followed the signs through a few fields, grateful to leave the road but somewhere along the way, we missed a turn. We ended up traipsing through marsh and bog before deciding to back track.
Using the trail map, we walked through a large pasture and discovered a herd of 15 or so cows gathered near the exit gate. Giving them a wide berth and not looking directly at them, most of the enormous animals chomped contently on the lush grass. Except one. (There’s always one!!) She took a disliking to us, despite the distance between us. I managed to get through the gate but the cow began moving towards Tom rather menacingly (and surprisingly quickly.) We knew not to run or move too fast but with her getting closer, he finally sped up and shot through the gate which I latched behind him just in time.
I figured that was our excitement for the day as we were getting close to where we needed to leave the path and head to our accommodation. Wrong!
Will the day ever end?
Another missed exit and we found ourselves tromping through woods and finally landed in an industrial site where, thankfully, they were still working at 7.15pm. We arrived at Vallum House only to learn the kitchen was closed on Mondays. Totally my fault and poor research but it meant we’d have to walk another mile.
We switched shoes, and headed for dinner, very excited for a slap-up meal from the Thai takeaway (which I had researched) whose website said it was open on Mondays. Wrong again!! Thankfully, there was a small market next to the closed takeaway where we found salad, ham, bread rolls and crisps. Our host was so gracious, gave us plates, poured us two cold pints and we enjoyed our improvised dinner.
Total mileage for a day that was supposed to be 12 miles/19km : 15 miles/24km
Day 2: Carlisle to Linstock
We knew we wanted to visit Carlisle castle and cathedral so we planned a short day 2. We had arranged to stay at Vallum House for two nights and were able to walk without packs. It was a gloomy, wet and chilly day but we walked through pretty parks, and passed some lovely English countryside.
The path is pretty well signposted along here and it was a quiet, gentle way to recover from the previous day’s mishaps! With the rain getting heavier, we decided to call a taxi from Linstock. Luckily, we had a local taxi app on my phone which meant ordering a lift was simple. The driver took us back to Carlisle centre where we ate lunch at Foxes Café and then touristed the rest of the afternoon.
If you plan to visit several English Heritage sites, as we did, they offer an overseas visitor’s pass for either 9 days or 16 days. It is well worth the cost as we visited 5 sites over 9 days.
Despite having studied lots of English history in school, I had no idea Carlisle played as significant a role as it did. I thoroughly enjoyed wandering and learning. The museum was very interesting and, as often happens, there were volunteers full of wonderful tidbits and facts.
After a lovely day, despite the rain, we caught a bus back to our accommodations, enjoyed a meal and more delicious pints and hit the hay early.
Total mileage on an easy day: 6 miles (not including wandering Carlisle)
Day 3: Linstock to Irthington
We enjoyed another short easy day, this time with full packs. We took a taxi back to Linstock and picked up the path where we had left off. It was a pretty walk through woods and along the River Eden. Just like day 2, there was plenty of rain with intermittent sunshine so we spent the day slipping in and out of our rain jackets.
We stopped at The Stag’s Inn for a nice filling lunch in Crosby-on-Eden which turned out to be a great choice as we had to make snacks work for dinner. Thankfully, there was a snack shack (honesty box) run by our accommodation hosts. We were so fortunate with the choice of guest houses and B&Bs along the Wall and while Day 3’s accommodations were fine (clean, bright, fabulous location right on the trail) we were rather disappointed with the overall experience.
All in all, Day 3 was probably the least interesting day of the walk but, at just 7 miles, it felt easy which allowed us time to “rest” before the hills that were ahead of us..
Day 4: Irthington to Greenhead
Yay! We finally reached the Wall and it was everything we’d hoped it would be.
We planned to cover 12 miles/19km on Day 4 and it should come as no surprise that the final mileage was 14.4miles/23km. The day began in watery sunshine, walking through forests and across fields with sweeping views of the Cumbrian countryside.
If you have any doubt about taking a long-distance walking holidays, days like today are why they are so enjoyable. The terrain was manageable, with very little of the path on pavement. The only sounds were birds chirping, sheep baaing and the river running as we walked beside it. I don’t always find a meditative rhythm when walking with a heavy pack but the morning of Day 4 was one of those perfect experiences.
A delicious & historical detour
We took a detour from the path so we could visit Lanercost Priory and Tearooms. I had read great reviews about the food, especially the cakes and we were not disappointed. We both chose an open-faced sandwich (mine was brie, onion jam and bacon on sourdough = scrum-diddly!!) And of course, we could not leave without tasting one of their delicious looking cakes.
We couldn’t decide so we shared two – the coffee walnut cake and the squidgy orange cake. We thoroughly enjoyed both and are now hoping to find a recipe for the orange cake 🙂
The priory and church were well worth the visit, especially as we had our English Heritage passes. Sometimes, seeing the creative brilliance of humans is humbling; hundreds of years later, I could still see the love and devotion the craftspeople put into the building and art.
Better get a move on
After a longer than planned break, and with (at least) 7 miles left to walk, we headed back to the path and a quick sunny hour later, we arrived at our first view of the Wall itself. Nearly halfway to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, on Day 4 of our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall, we were rather chuffed to finally see what all the fuss is about. To think this wall has stood for more than 1900 years is quite extraordinary. Those Romans certainly knew a thing or two about building!!
A short time later, we arrived at Birdoswald, another English Heritage site, and explored their museum and ruins in the rain. I loved having the passes as it allowed us to visit as many sites as we liked without feeling the pressure to “get our money’s worth” each time. We enjoyed afternoon tea, complete with a scone and Devonshire cream before, once again, hitting the trail and beginning to climb.
I was very excited to see the “Welcome to Northumberland” sign though my enthusiasm was dampened when we took a wrong turn and added an extra mile+ to our walk.
We finally arrived, after 5pm, to what might be our favorite guest house of our whole trip – Hadrian’s Holiday Lodges in Greenhead. We slept in our very comfy “pod” with a fantastic shower (always very welcome at the end of a long day) and the host also offered free taxi service to the local restaurant where we enjoyed more cold beers and a yummy dinner at The Greenhead Hotel & Bar.
Day 4 is definitely the best…so far!!
Day 5 of our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall:
Greenhead to Once Brewed
After a filling, delicious and nutritious start to the day (including poached eggs!) we walked back to Hadrian’s Wall path and continued our eastward journey. The morning was quite bright and we were cautiously optimistic for a day without rain.
Instead, by the end of the day, we had climbed over 1700ft elevation in pelting-sideways rain and we had witnessed some splendid, breath-taking views. We only covered 8+ miles/13km but they were up and up and up, with the occasional down thrown in to keep us on our toes (or heels in this case!)
Staying healthy and pain free
These are the kinds of days that fill my bucket; I love feeling exhausted because I have worked my body hard. The meditative nature of walking, even when it is up a difficult grade, seems to soothe my soul and relieve any mental stress I may be feeling. I am thrilled to share that while we were away for almost a month, my RA symptoms which had been flaring since March, disappeared and I was able to enjoy the walk pain-free.
It is hard on the heart and legs to climb a steep hill and I often found myself leaning on my poles for extra help. There were several sets of steps, one of which was at least 300 steps high. (Yes, I counted!) And of course, what goes up…
I have never been a fan of downhills (unless I am on skis on a bluebird powder day) and these hills were no exception. Fortunately, because we were heading east, there were fewer downhill stairs and most of the walking was on slick hilly slopes. By this point, I was even more happy with our decision to travel west to east. The final descent of the day was to our accommodations for the night. By this time, my knees were asking for a break, my toes were pressed hard against the tips of my boots and my back was aching from the extra weight.
In case you’re wondering, even on hard physical days like today, I had a blast and never once thought of stopping. I am glad we did the preparations needed and decided to do the walk on the timeline that suited us and we are already planning our next walking trip.
Best named town on our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall
We had reservations to stay at a hostel (YHA The Sill) for Day 5. We booked a room for two with four single beds, and an ensuite bathroom. The accommodations were clean and bright and the shower was hot and powerful. They also had food available when we got hungry later that evening. I wouldn’t consider myself a hostel-lover (now that I’m in my 50s!!) but if modern hostels are this nice, I could be persuaded.
But possibly the best aspect of our stay was the fact that we were in Once Brewed Yup, that’s the name of the “town;” isn’t that brilliant? And what, you might ask, was the name of the pub where we enjoyed cold beers and a delicious pizza? Twice Brewed.
Day 5 is definitely the best day…so far!!
Day 6: Once Brewed to Chollerford
I have always thought myself pretty good at reading a map. After all, I am the one who has done the navigating for our family for more than 35 years. (Mostly because I don’t like driving, and Tom likes to drive.) Before we had maps on our phones, I unfurled those big paper maps or flicked through the book to figure out best routes etc…
So why, oh why, can I not properly figure out walking routes and distances? We know every day is going to be a little over my planned distance and getting lost also increases our walk but really???
Today, I had 10 miles/16km planned and we ended up walking over 13 miles/21km. Add to that the 2000ft elevation gains and we were poopedy-dooped by the time we crawled into Chollerford; I was so happy to see our lodging for the night!!
Another filling breakfast set us on our path in the sunshine and the views were again magnificent. Most of the mileage was on grass, across rolling hills and through fields with sheep and cows. And we earned every last one of them. Up, down, up, down for a lot of the day. We stopped by Housesteads (another English Heritage site) and enjoyed the small museum and ruins. We also enjoyed an ice-cream to keep us going.
Sometimes it feels like the world is full of wankers
Perhaps you have heard of Sycamore Gap and most of us are familiar with the fabulous tree that plays a role in the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves film.
Today, we witnessed for ourselves the remains of that tree. In September 2023, two wankers (allegedly) felled the tree that had stood in this gap along Hadrian’s Wall for more than a century. I couldn’t take any photos as I felt quite overwhelmed with sadness and kept thinking of all the crappy things we humans sometimes do.
And sometimes we make poor choices
We did not carry a packed lunch today and that was a silly mistake and, as seasoned hikers, we should have known better. My notes made no mention of lunch options and a full-English only carries a body so far. We rummaged through our packs and discovered some crumbled cookies and granola bars.
The last part of Day 6 of our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall was on pavement which is always harder on the legs and feet. When we finally reached Chester’s Fort, we could not summon the energy to walk down the long driveway to explore and visit another English Heritage site with (supposedly) a great museums and ruins.
Instead, we dragged our sorry selves to the hotel and straight to the dining room for a cold brew and a sandwich to tide us over till dinner.
We stayed at The George Hotel. The reviews weren’t great but we were very pleasantly surprised by the delicious meals we enjoyed. The staff was friendly, the room was clean but the shower was terrible; barely a dribble which doesn’t soothe the body at the end of our hardest day yet.
Day 7: Chollerford to Heddon-on-the-Wall
One of the things we came to appreciate as we walked was how the path had been created to remove walkers from pavement and main roads as much as possible. We often heard or saw traffic but felt much safer and a little secluded as we walked through copses and fields.
You ate how much food on your 8-day walkalong Hadrian’s Wall???
It always surprises me how much food I need to put away when I am exercising so hard. I used my watch to track each day’s walks and was shocked to see that I burned 600+/- extra calories on my two easiest days and more than 1500 calories on our 4 toughest days. In total, over 8 days of walking the Wall, I burned more than 10,000 extra calories.
My notes for Day 7 mentioned a delightful lunch spot – Errington Coffee House – and it measured up. Even after beginning the day with yet another full-English (yes, you can get fed up with the same plate of food after 6 days!!) we arrived hungry and devoured a rather large egg sandwich and (as you do on your holliers) two cakes. Feeling replete, we headed out for the short 4 miles to Robin Hood Inn.
Let’s keep going & set a record for longest day (16.5mi/26.5km)
We had talked about stretching the following day, Day 8, into two days but decided against it; my sisters were meeting us in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them.
After we checked in at The Robin Hood Inn, we had a large snack (I’m telling you…so much food!!!) and I changed into sandals. I emptied my pack of all but water and raincoats and off we went again to get a head start for our last day.
Having no packs makes such an enormous difference – definitely something to consider when you are planning your own Hadrian’s Wall walk. This afternoon was a lovely wander through more fields of sheep, though we noticed fewer kissing gates and stiles to climb. We can tell we’re getting closer to the city. We did manage to wade through the largest mud puddle/swamp of the walk so far. Did I mention I now had on sandals???
After 15 minutes navigating our way through the mud, and losing the tip of one of my hiking poles, we finally made our way to Heddon-on-the-Wall where we stopped at The Tun Tavern for a cold pint and called a taxi to return to Wall Houses.
One thing to mention here – we met some of the friendliest, most welcoming people along the walk. The locals were all happy to have us traipsing through their fields and towns and everyone greeted us with a smile. The other walkers were also chatty and happy, even when obviously exhausted. It’s a wonderful way to be reminded of the kindness and goodness in most humans.
Day 7 of our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall was the longest distance of our trip but we knew we’d be extra happy the next day when the taxi returned us 6 miles further down the road.
We said farewell to the Wall today; it would be lovely if the wall really did stand all the way to Wallsend but saying goodbye also meant we were getting closer to achieving our goal.
Day 8: Heddon-on-the-Wall to Wallsend
One of the reasons I had read against walking from west to east is because the final miles through Newcastle and onto Wallsend were awful. We were warned of industrial areas and ugly surroundings so, in many ways, I had kind of dreaded the actual walk part of our final day. And maybe low expectations caused the delight and enjoyment I felt as we wandered through quiet neighborhoods, along local trails filled with walkers and their pupsters.
We stopped at Liosi’s Sicilian Cafe for a yummy Italian lunch, taking mini cannolis to go and continued east.
We passed the sign for Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and I felt a ripple of excitement and accomplishment run through me. You see, not too long ago (okay, more than 50 years ago!) I was born in this city and this was the first time I was visiting since my family emigrated to Australia. While nothing looked or felt or sounded familiar, it was still a homecoming of sorts.
Are we there yet?
We wound our way along the River Tyne and walked Quayside with all the locals on a lunchtime break, run or walk. I was so proud of myself, I half expected a marching band to welcome me…I didn’t realize we still had another 5 miles to go. In keeping with the previous 7 days, we had showers and sunshine, sunshine and showers until we arrived at Segedunum with the sun high in the sky.
We celebrated with an ice-cream, bought a pin each and rested for a time. We elected not to tour the museum for 2 reasons – first, we were ready to get to our accommodations, and second, we didn’t feel the need to pay more money for another Roman museum.
Because we had chosen to stay in a flat in the city centre, near the castle, we took the train from Wallsend, just 5 minutes from Segedunum. I wonder if the other people on the train and streets as we passed could feel my excitement and exhaustion.
I suppose, day 8 was the best day of our walk in one hugely important way – we accomplished another extraordinary feat. And that is what any long-distance walking trip is. No matter if you carry or ship your pack, regardless of how many miles you walk every day, or if you need to take a day or more off to allow your body time to recover. When we humans set out to do something big, it is important to acknowledge and celebrate our wins.
Final thoughts
On the day I am writing this, we finished our 8-day walk along Hadrian’s Wall just 4 weeks ago. The experience was absolutely wonderful, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even the challenging moments – getting lost, sideways rain, missing out on lunch.
I hope this diary type entry will help you if you are planning your own trip; I know I certainly needed and appreciated the blog posts I found. Together, we are a community of adventurers, living life as best we can, and I wish you all the best as you embark on your own exciting travels.
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