Humping and Tumping along Hadrian's Wall

6 August 2017

Participants: Me and Peter King

Where: Highshield Crags, 283m/928', Tump, OS 86/87, NY 764 678, Hotbank Crags, 327m/1,073', Tump, NY 776 685, and Winshield Crags, 345m/1,132', Hump, NY 742 676

 

The forecast for the morning was reasonable but heavy rain was forecast to move in in the afternoon so a shortish walk was in order before I drove back to Scotland. I had been to Hadrian's Wall before but the section above Once (and Twice!) Brewed would be new to me and also a really interesting part of the Wall so we drove east and parked in Peel car park. I had no idea that any of the points that we would be walking over made it into the hill lists although when we got to Winshield Crags and found a trig point on top I did start to wonder.

 

The Wall is justifiably a World Heritage Site. It is the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain and for nearly 300 years was the north-west frontier of an empire that stretched east for 2,500 miles and south for 1,500 miles to the deserts of Africa. Built to separate the Romans from the barbarians, i.e., us, it is 73 miles long and crosses the country from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend on the Tyne. It was built as a frontier control; nothing much changes does it Mr Trump and the Brexiteers. As well as the Wall itself, there are a series of forts, barracks, milecastles, gates, bath houses and turrets. And of course, modern day visitor centres and exhibitions. Built on the orders of Emperor Hadrian in the 120's it was eventually abandoned at the start of the 5th century. Really interesting and I would imagine that to walk the entire length would be a magnificent expedition- takes about a week apparently.

 

We decided to walk east from Peel over a very up and down section of the Wall. This is from very near the start of the walk looking to Peel Crags, Highshield Crags, Crag Lough and Hotbank Crags the high point in the distance.....

 

 

The route of the Wall is now a National Trail and the steeper sections now seem to be paved; if the number of walkers that we met is representative of its popularity then they would need to be in order to protect the environment. The weather was so so- a bit dull but perfectly clear. The path at least in this section follows closely the Wall itself, switching sides from time to time. This is on Peel Crags and shows the undulating nature of the route as well as showing the thickness of the Wall.....

 

 

Moving on towards Highshield Crags, we passed Milecastle 39, one of many guardposts that were built at intervals of one Roman mile to control movement across the Wall.....

 

 

The highest point of Highshield Crags which I later discovered was a Tump, was on the north side of the Wall above the west end of Crag Lough.

 

The path dipped again to pass Hotbank farm above which was another high point- Hotbank Crags, again subsequently found to be a Tump. This is the path ascending Hotbank Crags, the most easterly part of our walk.....

 

 

There was a good view back from here over the section that we had come and on to the impressive looking Winshield Crags in the far distance.....

 

 

More similar views of Crag Lough, Highshield Crags (mostly tree covered), Peel Crags, the single clump of trees which contains Peel car park and then Winshield Crags in the distance.....

 

 

 

Rather than go back over the high parts of the Trail, we dropped down below it on the south side where there was a low level trail. However, we went back up again at Peel Crags where I took this photo of Winshield Crags with Peel wood car park in front of it....

 

 

Getting closer.....

 

Winshield Crags looked as though it would provide a good view westwards so we passed the car park and carried on to its summit. Right enough there was a good view to the northern Pennines with Cold Fell prominent.....

 

 

 

The weather was starting to look a bit threatening so we decided to call it a day. I will be back though to explore more of this fascinating area.

I had only driven as far as Longtown on the way home when the rain arrived; it bucketed down all the way till I got to about Hamilton.