Hadrian’s Wall Day 3 Brampton to Once Brewed



Today began with clouds looming overhead with the feel of impending rain - and a question of "which way are we going" from my directionally challenged husband.

"Already killing the pace," grumbles husband when I stop for a photo a few minutes into our walk. "25 minute pace." So I stopped for another picture.

Today's segment changed up how we cross over property lines. There were a lot less kissing gates and a lot more ladders over.

We started our walk with a taxi ride to where we left off yesterday. We've been told several times that today is where the walk starts to get really interesting!

The book promises: This stage is packed with good wall and good walking – by the day's end you'll have encountered milecastles, turrets, a watchtower, a castle made from Roman stones, two Wall forts, the remains of a Roman bridge and a highly informative museum. You will also have encountered both the highest reconstructed and unreconstructed parts of the Wall.

There is only about 10 miles of intact wall remaining and it hardly ever rises to more than half its original height.

Milecastles are small forts along the wall that housed the solders (about 30) who guarded the wall. They were built at every Roman Mile so if we count our steps between them we should get to 1000 steps, which equals a Roman mile. 

Pop quiz: If the wall is 80 Roman miles long and the Milecastles are 1 mile apart, how many are there?

There are 80 milecastles in all along Hadrian's Wall.

And evenly spaced between each one were 2 turrets (observation posts) – 161 total – each capable of holding 10 men. It would have taken 2 1⁄2 minutes to run from one turret to the next so messages could have been relayed along the wall speedily.

The turrets - originally 161 in all - are a common sight along the trail. Though our pace was quite a bit slower than 2 1/2 minutes between each. 

You can buy a Hadrian's Wall passport and stamp it at several sites along the way

The Hadrian's Wall passport is sold at the beginning of the path as well as shops along the way

Look what we found - a bathroom on the path!!  There were 3 today and we used each one!

"Uh oh," Greg says as we come to our first cow herd of the day. "Happy cows, happy cows, happy cows," Greg chants, as he noticeably slows down to let me go first.

I think this curious cow wanted to join us on our pilgrimage but Greg said no

We are obviously starting to get delerious... passing up an opportunity for a beer. We had lunch reservations at Greenhead Hotel Pub, just off the path, but chose to forego them to get further before the rain was forecasted to begin. In hindsight, it was a wise decision because that is where the hills began - and they would've been a lot tougher after a large meal with beers!

And so begin the hills. This first one was nothing compared to what we had in store for us when we reached the crags. 

We stopped at Walltown's picnic tables for our lunch of champions - trail mix and beef jerky - and found a beer (and toilet) at the small snack shop. Your B&B will pack a lunch for you but we assumed we were eating at the pub in Greenhead.

Up and down. And again, up and down. We made it to the highest point on the wall today (only 1132 feet). I wasn't aware for how many times we would go up and down all the crags today! At 14.5 miles, today's distance was our shortest day - and felt like our longest! That's ok - it was invigorating, and somewhat drab up to that point anyway. But my feet did get tired in the end.

Just passed the Walltown visitor center you walk up the first crag.  The top is exhilarating and windy!

The Walltown Crags - my favorite view today!  After this the views are all amazing. 

The grasses are so pretty, though I was especially careful to stay on the path today after reading about the poisonous adder snakes. 

From the top of the crags you can see for miles

Cawfields Quarry has picnic tables, toilets, and gorgeous views

At Caw Gap we are about halfway through all the crags. If you look to the distance you can see we still have quite a few ups and downs to go!

The clouds loomed all day but the rain held out, fortunately. I think that portion of the path would've been miserable in the rain. Tomorrow may not be so lucky.

We are staying at Twice Brewed Inn in Once Brewed. It is a great place to stay - nice rooms, good food, and best of all, it is a brewery!

Everything on the Twice Brewed menu sounded good. We chose calzone and steak pie. 

We vowed to order sticky toffee pudding every time it is on the menu. Super yum!!!

The sun doesn't set until 9:52 pm so we went back out to the wall after dinner for some pictures. We are staying nearby Sycamore Gap - the most photographed spot along the whole wall. I've always recognized this from the memorable scene in the movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991) where Kevin Costner is returning home and rescues the boy from the villains with the huge, shaggy wolf hounds.

Sycamore Gap - my most anticipated view along the Hadrian's Wall path. At 9:15 pm the sun finally broke through the cloud cover. 

So thoughtful of those Romans to give us multiple gate options. They must have known that climbing a ladder after 3 pints would not be wise. 

We hit 45,000 steps today!