Shrewsbury

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Hadrian's Wall, Part VIII (South of the Wall)

Hadrian's Wall wasn't just maintained by the forts on the wall. There were a large number of forts to the south keeping it supplied and ferrying troops where needed. The majority of these are not usually seen on a Wall trip since they are located several miles away from the path and need a full day trip to reach them. Some are ones I haven't been to but intend to before my time here is up. I could have listed most of these as separate trips and I visited several at the same time I walked the wall, but it made more sense to split the wall into wall forts, supply forts, and forts north of the wall. Some of these are linked to days on the wall since they are so close and the journey was the same. For example, we stayed the night in Corbridge yet it is listed separately here. So you can follow the links to see what else is around in that area and what we did for the rest of the day.

Hadrian's Wall, Part V (Once Brewed to Birdoswald)

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Hadrian's Wall, Part IV (Chesters to Once Brewed)

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Hadrian's Wall, Part III (Corbridge to Chesters)

Our third day on the wall went much more smoothly than our second. It wasn't nearly as hard (or rather it shouldn't have been) and we were mostly walking through towns along the road. We were quite drained from the previous day though, and our 'easy' trip became quite strenuous as we yet again arrived late to our stopping point. A key thing to remember when doing this section is that while Corbridge and Hexham may be only a couple miles south of the wall those miles are straight uphill. It isn't as easy as it looks. Had we known then what we do now we'd probably have just grabbed the AD123 bus from Hexham up to Wall or Corbridge and then continued from there.

Hadrian's Wall, Part II (Newcastle to Corbridge)

 

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Having spent our first day wandering around Newcastle and getting the train everywhere we finally set off on the actual hike. Our plan today was to get to Corbridge where we had a bed & breakfast reserved for the night. I looked it up on Google Maps and it said that the entire journey would cover about fifteen miles, a long but not impossible stretch. Since there was basically nothing to see for this part of the journey (and certainly no stretches of wall) this didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. Do the serious walking on the days when there were few places to stop at and save the slow days for areas where there was a lot to see. There were only two problems. First, the distance calculation was based on road miles in a direct line to our destination. Google Maps doesn't include walking paths in its directions. I figured that the actual distance would be less than the road miles since the path could cut corners which roads would have to circle around. Boy was I wrong. The trail heads along the river for a while, but then it goes sharply north up through Heddon and then keeps going along a north-westerly direction whereas Corbridge is right on the river about two miles south of the wall. So our strenuous fifteen mile hike turned into a draining twenty mile slog that took up the entirety of the day. Second, I didn't factor in the terrain. Google Maps doesn't show the terrain and while Google Earth does it's very hard to get an idea from it of just how steep it really is. The hills weren't too bad (at least today) but once the trail goes off road all time calculations get thrown off. I'm used to hiking wilderness trails or along roads, not cutting across fields and climbing over fences. Progress is slow and painful, and it doesn't help when you're tired from having walked ten miles already and then up a steep hill. By the time we arrived at Corbridge at about 9 PM we were too tired to move.

Hadrian's Wall, Part I (South Shields to Newcastle)

 Because this is such a large area this section will be split into nine parts, one for each of the seven days of the trip plus an extra two for the miscellaneous forts surrounding the wall. The majority of this walk (from Newcastle to Birdoswald) was done at the same time but I've included bits from other walks in the place where they most logically fit in. This trip will only deal with the wall itself and the forts that lay upon it. There are several supply forts, closely connected to the wall, that we visited but they will be listed in parts eight and nine. I'll mention them when they come up but click on the link for more detail.

Monkwearmouth/Jarrow

Despite being grouped together the twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow are actually about seven miles apart. Their connection was a very real one though since they were both founded by the same man and were both home to that most famous of Saxon scholars: Bede. Bede was that rarest of people in the Dark Ages, a well-educated polymath. He not only wrote the sole contemporary history (as opposed to chronicle) of Anglo-Saxon times, he also wrote tracts on astronomy and mathematics as well as chronology. His use of Anno Domini (AD) was so successful that it overrode all other dating systems to become the one used until this day. I will say more about Bede later since there is a museum dedicated to him in Jarrow. In fact, the metro station closest to Jarrow Abbey is called Bede. Despite being grouped together there are three separate places here: Wearmouth Abbey, Jarrow Abbey, and the museum known as Bede's World which features a reconstructed Saxon village.