Hadrian's Cycleway
by Anne Nobbs
That's what Malc and I did last July. We set out to spend a week or so travelling from West to East across the North of England, cycling the route of this Ancient Roman frontier. We stayed, for the most part, in Youth Hostels or B&B's and our cycles were welcome guests, too. We used local shops along the route and ate well in pubs and restaurants, sampling local beers and produce whenever we got the opportunity.
Our first night was in Carlisle and we took our laden bikes on the train the next morning, going west to Melvyn Bragg's birthplace: Wigton. From there we did a short ride to make our first lunch stop in Abbey Town. The abbey - a daughter church to Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire- was being repaired after a huge fire which had destroyed the roof. In addition, Scottish marauders (Border Rievers) of yesteryear had left their marks - literally - where their arrowheads had embedded themselves in the doors and walls. After lunch we picked up the Sustrans Route and did the longest day's ride of the holiday (38 miles) - all along the coast road of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It certainly was beautiful - and almost completely flat - a great way to get our legs warmed up for the days ahead. We saw a pet pig in the pub at Bowness and discovered a bronze statue of Edward I in a pub car park at Burgh-by-Sands, before braving the mosquitoes in the early evening along the riverside path back into Carlisle.
After that it was up into the hills of Northumbria and our first sights of The Wall. The countryside was breathtaking. At Banks Turret we had a view southwards to Striding Edge and Helvellyn in the Lake District. All along the hedgerows, honeysuckle was in full flower and the scent was glorious. We spent the night at Birdoswald Roman Fort; the farmhouse there is a Youth Hostel and the garden is the Fort. We were able to view the English Heritage exhibitions before they closed for the day - then had the Fort to ourselves for the evening - and a cosy Aga to sit by as we cooked our evening meal.
The next day's cycling included an exhilarating descent through spectacular scenery to Greenhead and on to Haltwhistle for lunch. The station there was from a different age! After that we went on up to 'Once Brewed', where we enjoyed a climb up Steel Rigg and a walk along a section of the wall. We came upon what turned out to be our favourite view - and many other people's to judge from the number of times it's depicted on posters or is the subject of paintings: Crag Lough. We saw the 'Robin Hood Tree' (from the Kevin Costner film), too, at 'Sycamore Gap'.
We were having a 'rest day' the next day - going down to Vindolanda and meeting up with friends there. What a fantastic site - so much to see, and still so much to do! (The archaeologists there told us they'd got enough digging to keep them busy for another 200 years!) Then we set off for a short hop over the highest point of the ride - Crindledykes - on our way to 'The Old Repeater Station' - an idiosyncratic little place where we enjoyed a most pleasant overnight stay. We actually got to go over Crindledykes again the next day, as we did a little loop back to visit Housesteads (A 'National Trust' centre on the wall) and a lime kiln before continuing through Hexham to Corbridge for our next overnight stop.
A bit of research into each of the places we passed through revealed so much more than the Roman connection. There were castles at Carlisle and Prudhoe, and a Priory at Lanercost. We saw a fortified vicarage (Pele Tower) at Corbridge. Wylam had a Railway Museum and, nearby, on a section of the Sustrans Route where the great man built an early section of track, (The Wylam Waggonway) was George Stephenson's birthplace (property of Nat. Trust). We arrived there just as they were closing and they allowed us a quick peek before showing us through the gateway at the side of the cottage to a lane that was probably a thoroughfare when Stephenson was a boy. It was a short cut through farmland up to Heddon-on-the-Wall, where we were staying overnight in a house with a cliff-hanger of a balcony boasting far-reaching views across the valley.
After that it was on into Newcastle, with all its industrial and dockland heritage, as well as the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and something we dubbed 'The Slug'! (We never did find out what it really was.) We went on to Wallsend to visit Segedunum Roman Fort and Baths, before returning to explore the city at the end of the day.
The next morning we made an early start (in fog) to make it to the Shields ferry in time to visit the Easternmost part of the wall (Arbeia) and return to Newcastle to catch the AD122 Bus. We had booked ourselves and our bikes onto the special bus which retraced for us, in one afternoon, our tyre-tracks of the past eight days.
Before long we were back in Carlisle, having covered about 160 miles at a mean average of 20 miles a day, in (mostly) glorious sunshine and in great tranquillity. I found the Roman sites much more interesting than I'd expected. I couldn't believe that the whole wall had been built in only six years, nearly 2000 years ago - and by Roman soldiers, not slaves. They didn't just build a wall, either. Dotted along its length are Roman forts and milecastles. Many of the sites now have reconstructed buildings and some have museums for archaeological finds. Wherever we stopped, we met friendly and fascinating people. It was a lovely holiday!
Why not try it yourself?
We were advised to go from West to East, to take advantage of the prevailing wind. The headwind, on the first day, when we were travelling West was very noticeable, even though it was a warm and clear day.
In case you're wondering, neither of us was particularly fit and had not put in a great deal of 'training' before the ride. We had to be content, at times, to just get off and walk up a hill; otherwise, we rode at a comfortable pace. It was our holiday after all!
At the same time, we had been sponsored by friends and colleagues to do this ride, as I was raising funds to go to Kyrgyzstan to build houses with 'Habitat for Humanity' - but that's a different story!