Walking Hadrian's Wall

We drove a small automatic thru England, Scotland and Wales. If you can do it, I recommend driving for the pure Freedom it allows you. We stayed in a farm B & B right near the Wall. The weather in Late July/ Early August should be the best weather. Maybe some passing showers. The Wall doesn't connect all the way thru anymore but there are several pieces that go quite a ways. You should visit all the Roman settlement sites if you can. They are easy to self tour. Check World Heritage, National Trust UK and English Heritage and other web sites for more info. There are Hadrian Wall Towns with buses that make daily trips to different points on the Wall so you could get a ride out or back from several Wall locations.

We - myself, my wife and four friends - did it some years ago. We went west to east - in theory the weather which tends to come from the southwest should be at your back, or at least, not in your face. It was, in my recollection, for the most part dry and fine - we walked in summer - although we did get one soaking when dropping off the path to our B&B at Haltwhistle.

Being from different parts of the country, we all rendezvoused in Carlisle where we stayed two nights. We took taxis out to the start at Bowness on Solway and walked back to Carlisle. Following day we retraced our steps to the wall and walked on from there, stopping each night at different accommodation on the way. The accommodation - B&Bs in the main with the odd hotel (Carlisle, Corbridge, central Newcastle). - we booked ourselves from guides and websites. I made a mistake in booking us at a place called Hadrians Lodge (which from the website seemed to be 'wall central') which turned out to be a five mile hike off the wall and thus a five mile walk back to the wall the following day. It didn't make me the most popular person on the trip for a while, especially as the accommodation was 'nothing special'. But all these things are a bit of a punt.

There should be plenty of information on accommodation, it all depends where you want to break your walk each day. We used the National Trail guide published by Aurum Press as our guide book (and guide). There's nothing of the wall at the start, in fact we were into the third day I think before we came across the wall. The middle section is in the remotest country and has the most wall - Sycamore Gap, Housesteads etc., and is the most scenic as it swoops up and down over the crags. That said, the current road across the country makes use of the old military supply road constructed by the Romans - yes, it was that well engineered - so it's not exactly a wilderness experience as traffic is often running parallel, albeit some distance away, but this means you can access the summer bus service, the AD122 (see what they did there?!) if you need to. We also detoured off the line of the wall to visit museums at Vindolanda and Chesters, albeit fleetingly. We went back later by car to visit these more extensively and the sites we were forced to miss out, I suppose it all depends how much time you have to devote to the walk - we took a little over a week.

Walking the way we did we said farewell to the wall just after Heddon on the Wall as we approached Newcastle on Tyne. From here the trail follows the River Tyne into Newcastle in an increasingly urban setting although I enjoyed this bit especially on the quayside through Newcastle (a fine city!). The last couple of miles to the Roman fort of Segadunum at Wallsend were not terribly interesting and were decidedly urban, passing the disused shipyards en route and some kids racing parts of an abandoned three piece suite down the tarmac paths near Wallsend - a little local colour but not a wilderness experience!

We all returned home from Newcastle which has a large station with connections to all points, be it back to Carlisle, or, in our case, southwards to Yorkshire. I returned home in flip flops due to a blister on my pinkie caused by deciding to wear a new pair of hiking boots for the walk - a rookie error.

Doing it under your own steam is the most economic way to go and you can tailor the trip to suit your own needs. The Aurum National Trail guide makes use of the Ordnance Survey maps, so if you can map read, they are very straightforward, you will need more maps if you decide to detour off the wall trail as the guide (largely) is only strip maps. You should find that the path is also marked by the National Trail 'acorn' symbol markers, although you can't navigate exclusively by these. B&Bs should be now be less of a lottery thanks to Trip Advisor, which frankly when we went I'd never heard of! Hope you have a great trip!

Ian

We visited the Wall near Haltwhistle and had a wonderful stay at this B&B at a farm.

Wydon Farm
Haltwhistle
NE49 0LG
GB
+4401434321702

A company called Brigantes does tours where they book rustic accommodation (B and B's or farmhouses, and book dinner each night, I think) and transfer your luggage every day before you arrive. If I have misspelled the name and you can't locate them, let me know. My husband went last summer with a few friends. Brigantes was very reasonable.

We walked the central portion of the wall last year and relied completely on public transport to, from and around. We made our own arrangements and took advantage of luggage transfer service between the B and B's we stayed in.

There is a special bus that visits key Hadrian wall sites that helps with transport to B and B for the night when you finish walking a section of the wall. We also hired guide Peter Carney for a day to give us an orientation to the wall, it's history, and key information about certain stretches. This background info made walking the wall more meaningful as we understood more about what we were seeing.

I think the biggest surprise for me was how much steep up and down scrambling over rocks there was in areas such as Sycamore Gap. I was glad I had my hiking poles.

I can strongly recommend the Pear Tree B and B in Corbridge and the Ashcroft Guest House in Haltwhistle.

We spent two days hiking sections of the trail from a base in Haltwhistle. We loved the Ashcroft B and B, mentioned by Carol above. The section between there and Steel Rigg is considered one of the most scenic, but also includes the step section she mentions. We took the dedicated bus to the Housesteads area to walk there and visit the fort the following day.

The weather in late May was clear and sunny, but very windy on the second day.

While we thoroughly enjoyed the two days of hiking, the scenery and the historical aspects, we agreed that two days were enough, as the scenery did not seem to change significantly.

Haltwhistle is accessible by train so it is easy to plan a hike based there.

This website may be helpful, also this one. I've been to the wall (Housesteads and Vindolanda, not to be missed) but haven't hiked it. You'll be living one of my fantasies! Thanks for posting and drawing such interesting responses from people who have done it.

Just a few quick points to this excellent thread. As others have noted, much of the wall doesn't exist, so please don't expect it all to be a scenic countryside walk. I just did the central section--Steel Rigg to Housesteads--which is the most spectacular, so if you can't do it all, be sure to focus on this section. I can also recommend the Ashcroft Guest House in Haltwhistle and Peter Carney as a fabulous local guide who also can pick you up at either the Carlise or Newcastle train stations.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply! You've given me a lot of food for thought and lots of great advice!

We walked the Hadrian's Wall path (a waymarked, national trail) from Heddon-on-Wall to Carlisle, using a company called Hadrian's Wall Ltd:

http://www.hadrianswall.ltd.uk

They have lived near the wall for years and know the area well. Tell them how far you want to walk, total and each day, and they will book accommodations to meet your needs, and arrange transportation for your luggage from place to place.

The weather in July and August should be good. The scenery is amazing, and the history is fascinating. Enjoy!!

My husband and I usually travel using trains and public transportation so we were looking into getting to Hadrian's wall on our own via bus and taxi. Instead we hired a guide (for the 1st time ever) and are so glad we did!! The day we spent with Peter Carney was the highlight of our UK trip. His knowledge of Roman history and the area were invaluable as was his easygoing personality. We were picked up at our B&B in Haltwhistle and driven to some of the very best sections of Hadrian’s wall and 2 museums (Roman Army Museum and Vindolanda). Without Peter’s insight and knowledge, we would have missed some of the most important features, construction and history of the wall and the fort at Vindolanda. Because Peter knows the archeologists at Vindolanda, we were able to get the “inside scoop” of the artifacts discovered the day we visited. We even held some of the day’s artifacts in our hands while one of the lead archeologist explained where they were digging and what they were finding. Peter made the the history Hadirian’s Wall come alive, and we thoroughly enjoyed our day. Peter's email: [email protected]