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The Pennine Way | |
| Introduction Edale Crowden Globe Farm Slack Top Ponden Thornton Malham Horton Hawes Tan Hill |
 The Roman (Hadrian's) Wall at Caw Gap |
Bowes Middleton Langdon Beck Dufton Garrigill Alston Greenhead Twice Brewed Bellingham Bryness Uswayford |
This section of the PW was the most obviously historic one on the walk. On the previous days I had come across ancient remains but they were merely bumps in the landscape, e.g. Kirkcarrion back in Teesdale. Here the past made itself obvious in the shape of the Roman or Hadrian's Wall. Tourists cannot appreciate the Wall as much as a foot-sore PW walker who has travelled (often in the same footsteps) the same distance as the Roman soldiers who came to garrison this bleak corner of the Empire.
I started out trying to take a short-cut (marked on the map) across the fields uphill from the lane to the Vicarage. But this was blocked so I retraced my steps and rejoined the PW via Greenhead village. Thirlwall Castle is 'merely' some ruined but high walls plonked up on a grassy knoll - however they are 700 years old and built from stones acquired from the Wall and the nearby Roman fort of Carvoran.
Beyond the castle the path climbed up alongside a ditch - the first sign of the Roman Ditch that lies before the Wall where there are no crags to protect it. The stone wall on the other (south) side of the ditch is built on the foundations of the Wall. At the top of the slope you join a road that sweeps south around Walltown Quarry. This quarry has destroyed any sign of the Wall nearby but I seem to recall that there were plans to build a replica there so that people can see the Wall the way the Romans would have. The Wall was originally 6.5 to 10 feet (2-3 metres) in width and 16 feet (5 metres) in height. Now its highest point is at most half the original height.
From the road you miss out on the very first section containing the original Wall until the PW leaves the road and backtracks a bit to meet it. This first glimpse sent shivers up my spine. All too soon the original Wall was left behind. From here to Twice Brewed the path follows the Wall (or its route) closely. The next bit of the Wall I saw was turret 44B where only the first half-dozen layers of the turret stones (and a couple of rows either side) were visible. The next stop was at the site of Aesica (a Roman fort) near Great Chesters Farm where I had lunch with a couple with whom I walked (on and off) until almost the end of the PW. G'day Marilyn and Ian Charles of St Ives.
The PW is not level walking - it follows the crags of the Whin Sill which makes for interesting up and down progress. The dips usually have minor roads in them - you cross three of them before abandoning the Wall in the next day.
We next met the original Wall at Cawfield Crags where extensive restoration had given the Wall a very solid reality. These and other crags gave good views to the north over landscape that looked very barren under that day's gray skies. Soon we were on Winshields Crag and looking down on our destination - Twice Brewed. Just before Peel Crags, we followed a road down to remains of the Vallum ditch and a good meal (and a brew or two) at the Twice Brewed pub. Ian and Marilyn went off to the Once Brewed Youth Hostel while I walked up the road a bit to the Vallum Lodge Inn (a bit more upmarket than I had expected).
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