Hadrian's Wall to Greenhead: E2 Day 56

A shorter day's walk along Hadrian's Wall.

It was a bit far to walk from "The Sill" YHA to Alston in one day. I did it last year (in the opposite direction), but a year older, I do not feel anywhere near as fit and my limbs creak more (have I got "Long  Covid" I have wondered)? Consequently today I "just" walked 16 kilometres from The Sill to Greenhead. This included a circumnavigation of the village as the Pennine Way goes all the way around it rather than through it. On previous occasions I ignored this circuitous route and headed straight for the tea shop in Greenhead (a common ploy I expect), but today I had the time to follow all the turns of the Pennine Way, leaving it to reach the village on an overgrown footpath from its western side.

After being (slightly) restrained with myself at the "All You Can Eat" breakfast, I climbed back up to the ridge on which Hadrian's army built his defensive wall. Looking down as I followed it west, I could in places see the "vallum", or ditch that runs parallel to the wall to the south. Beyond that cars drove along the "Military Road", a "modern" road built along the wall in the 18th century due to the difficulty of moving troops from Newcastle to Carlisle.

Cows read about a turret on Hadrian's Wall. More intelligent than you might think!

A section of Hadrian's Wall with the remains of a Milecastle.

Two quarries straddled my route, which once exploited the hard dolerite rock of the Whin Sill on which Hadrian's Wall is built. These quarries destroyed sections of the Wall at a time before historical heritage was appreciated. Today the quarries, once filled with explosions and the noise of machines, were sites for picnics, car parking, toilets (locked) and the quiet enjoyment of nature around bodies of water filling large holes from which the rock had been removed.

Walltown Quarry, now a Country Park where Hadrian's Wall once stood. 

Having visited Thirlwell Castle on my last trip I continued onto a golf course where the grounds man on his machine made sure I knew I was on the Pennine Way and told me where it left the course. Having crossed the busy A69 road I left the Pennine Way to walked back into Greenhead on a footpath that the famous walker Alfred Wainwright might have used on his "Pennine Journey", described in his 1938 book. The footpath seems to have been little used since, it was difficult to see any track across the rough, reed filled pasture. One of the fingerposts had fallen down, and the steps going down to re-cross the A69 supported good sized weeds.

My first objective in the village was of course the tea shop for lunch, followed by checking into my hotel. My evening meal at the Greenhead hotel was the most expensive, and unusual of my trip. Starters was flakes of fish with little bits of strawberry and yellow beetroot with a sort of salty soup. For the main, an unusual sort of beetroot called crapaudine, turnip shaped but beetroot coloured, with various fungi, kale and venison, served suitably rare. One of my more memorable meals, and the portion size left room for me to enjoy bread and butter pudding for dessert.