Hadrian’s Wall

In October 2023, My mom Lynn, and my sisters Cassie and Sammie, and I walked Hadrian’s Wall, a very different walk compared to the Camino.

You can find details from our trip below; here are a few notes!

Eating along Hadrian’s Wall

The Hadrian’s Wall path is very much through empty countryside, with very few villages, restaurants, vending machines, etc., along the way. We didn’t realize this, so though we did buy a few good snacks at a grocery store in Carlisle the first day, that was the last grocery store we saw for the rest of the walk. Wherever you stop for the night, chances are there are 1-2 local restaurants nearby, but that’s it. If I was doing it again, I’d do a better job of stocking up the night before the walk began, and maybe look into having most of our lunches pre-made (some of the hotels, restaurants, and B&Bs offer this service, and it’s terrific).

Walking Days & Terrain

The terrain along the Hadrian’s Wall path is much more varied than the Camino – you’re mostly walking in the countryside, often through farm fields with livestock (cows, sheep, horses), sometimes climbing rocky hills. And occasionally there’s something interesting to stop and see, or detour to, like the remains of a Roman Bridge or a museum. There are plenty of days where the distance covered seems short compared to how long we were walking – sometimes that’s because we found neat things to check out, other times it’s because the path led over rocky mountains.

Accommodations

There are lots of places to stay along the path; we booked in July for our October trip, and liked a lot of the places we stayed. Something I might consider if I was doing it again would be to stay in one place for most of the nights, and use a car service or taxi to get to the walking points. Unlike the Camino, there’s nothing like the Albergues or Hostels, so you need to book in advance, but that also takes some of the stress out of the day, as you don’t need to worry that you’ll be hunting for a place to sleep every night.

Baggage Transfer Services

I had been planning on carrying my bag rather than sending it on with a service – I’d carried my bag throughout the Camino, and though I sometimes regretted it, it had been fine overall. The Hadrian’s Wall path is very different terrain, and even on the easy days you’re going to be doing some climbing. After Day 1 I realized that it was going to be a real difficulty to carry my full bag, so I was glad to pay the money to have our bags taken to the next location – we used Hadrian’s Haul to transfer ours.

The map below shows the route we took, our accommodations along the way, and some historical spots (marked with a skull & crossbones).

Our journey on Hadrian’s Wall

‘Walking time’ includes stopping for lunch and breaks throughout the day; we were slower on Hadrian’s Wall than we were on the Camino, in part because the terrain and weather is very different (some of these days were on easy paths, some were up over rocky hills with lots of climbing, some sunny days, some in driving rain and wind), and in part because all of our accommodations were pre-booked, and so we could take our time along the way. There are places along the way to explore, or to take a quick detour into – finding the phallus at the base of the Roman bridge, or finding a little community-run cafe with delicious tea and scones that you want to linger over – so it’s worth factoring in a little extra time.

Landing in Edinburgh (Thursday, October 5, 2023)
Day 1 – Bowness-on-Solway to Carlisle – 10 hours walking time, 28.7 km walked (Friday, October 6, 2023) – this was a bit of an error on our part, I would recommend splitting this into two days.
Day 2 – Carlisle to Banks – 10 hours walking time, 23.1 km walked (Saturday, October 7, 2023)
Day 3 – Banks to Once Brewed – 9 hours walking time, 14.5 km walked (Sunday, October 8, 2023)
Day 4 – Once Brewed to Chollerford – 9 hours walking time, 12.3 km walked (Monday, October 9, 2023)
Day 5 – Chollerford to East Wallhouses – 8.5 hours walking time, 20.2 km walked (Tuesday, October 10, 2023)
Day 6 – East Wallhouses to Newburn – 6 hours walking time, 18.1 km walked (Wednesday, October 11, 2023)
Day 7 – Newburn to Wallsend (Newcastle-on-Tyne) – 10 hours walking time, 9.3 km walked (Thursday, October 12, 2023)
Travel back to Edinburgh (Friday, October 13, 2023)