England: Day 10, Hadrian’s Wall

Photograph taken by on Thursday, August 15, 2013
Hadrian's Wall and Crag Lough

Hadrian’s Wall and Crag Lough

Milecastle 39 on Hadrian's Wall

Milecastle 39 on Hadrian’s Wall

Sycamore Gap, Hadrian's Wall

Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall

I’ve tried to confine myself to one picture per day or at most, one picture per major sight. Not only have I already posted a photo from the morning of day 10 (Caerlaverock Castle), I’m posting three from this location (Hadrian’s Wall). I cannot speak for anyone by myself but this was one of the high points of our trip, as far as I’m concerned. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, windy and cool. The greens were greener than they had been and we were away from the sounds of the city or even town life that had pretty much dominated our trip to this point.

Hadrian’s Wall, as you may know, was built starting in AD 122, during the rule of the Roman emperor Hadrian. It is 73 miles in length, running across northern England as a defense against the northern tribes (the Gaels and Picts).

It many places there isn’t much to see along the wall. I selected this section because I thought it would be pretty even if there had been no wall there to follow. I think that turned out to be true, although the wall did add to the ambiance. The first picture shown here is the scarp on which the wall runs. It runs from the Steel Rigg car park to Crag Lough, visible on the left. The wall runs just above the cliff and most not have needed to be very high for most of this stretch. If I were planning an attack, I think I’d have come at it somewhere else.

The second picture is of the wall as it descends from the heights to the ruins of Milecastle 39 in a gap in the scarp. The wall has forts spaced roughly a mile apart. The Roman mile (mille passuum, “a thousand paces”) is estimated to be 4,851 feet, about 0.91 statute miles.

The next gap along the way is called Sycamore Gap because of the lone Sycamore Maple tree (Acer pseudoplatanus) growing there. It’s a pretty spot and the sound of the wind blowing through the tree was a bit magical.

The changing light as the clouds raced across the sky, the dramatic cliffs to our north, the sheep peacefully grazing on the rich, green grass, all contributed to a wonderful afternoon.

Our walk took longer than expected (actually, pretty much everything we did the entire two weeks took longer than expected). That meant we missed having an afternoon tea where we had hoped to have it. We did have a nice lunch earlier at the Milecastle Inn, though. Between the castle in the morning and Hadrian’s Wall and a country hike in the afternoon, this was my favorite day of the trip.

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