As the only Roman frontier built largely in stone, the Hadrian’s Wall path is one of England’s most iconic long-distance footpaths. Here Emma recounts her six day journey of walking Hadrian’s Wall – one of the longest hike she’d ever personally tackled.
Emma, what was your motivation behind walking Hadrian’s Wall?
I grew up not far from Hadrian’s Wall in. It’s a place I have visited more times than I can count ever since I was a child.
Even though I now live in Canada, I still like to go when I visit family back home. Therefore it seemed like a really obvious choice when my friend and I talked about doing our first international multi-day hike.
With my parents living in Carlisle along the Hadrian’s Wall trail, and me knowing the area really well, it seemed less daunting than somewhere neither of us had ever been before. After walking parts of the wall through the years, I wondered what it would be like to walk the whole thing.
This would be the longest hike I’d ever done at 134km (84 miles) over 6 days – I wanted to prove to myself that I had what it took to handle a challenge like this.
How did you go about planning such an epic walk?
There were two main parts of the planning. The logistics of where to start and end each leg of our journey, and the physical training for a week of hiking with a large backpack.
The logistics turned out to be way more challenging.
Trying to find campsites and accommodation close enough to Hadrian’s Wall path so we weren’t adding too much additional distance to our days was difficult. As was working out how we should break up the hike People did anything from about 4 – 9 days on average. We settled for six which seemed the most doable.
The book “Hadrian’s Wall Path” by Henry Stedman proved to be an excellent resource in our pre-adventure planning.
As for the training, we knew that the biggest challenge of Hadrian’s Wall was not elevation like we’d had on past hikes in the mountains, but distance. Our training mostly consisted of very long walks on trails and hikes near where we lived, often packing a backpack with more than we needed to carry to get used to the weight.
For the couple of months leading up to the hike we would set aside one day a week to do long hikes, often around 20km – which was around the length of some of the longer days of our Hadrian’s Wall route.
Tell us about your journey, what was Walking Hadrian’s Wall like?
We started the Hadrian’s Wall walk in Bowness-on-Solway, Cumbria – although we wouldn’t see any of the actual Roman wall for another 25 miles.
Over six days of hiking we would cover 84-miles (134km) crossing northern England along the historic Roman wall route, established almost two millennia ago.
Halfway through our first day we stopped at the village of Burgh-by-Sands at a pub for lunch. The bartender, enquiring as to whether we were walking the Wall, said “it’s more or less just a long pub crawl isn’t it?“.
He’s not wrong. There are rural pubs all along the route, and they were our saviour for a good lunch rest break or an end of the day celebration. But the Hadrian’s Wall walk is much more than that.
It’s a personal challenge, and one more of stamina than actual hiking skills, for the route is not challenging.
But it’s epic, and historic, and all of the good things a real adventure should be.
Two more challenging hilly days were sandwiched between two more or less flat days either side. The two in the middle being where we saw most evidence of the Roman Wall we were promised.
The hiking days are long, and mostly through fields filled with sheep, cows and lots and lots of animal poo.
We tried to avoid it at first, but by day three we just gave up as we were spending more time looking down at our feet than at the beautiful countryside that surrounded us for miles and miles in every single direction.
This hike is a stark reminder as to just how green England really is. And it’s marvellous. Almost surreal in its simplistic beauty. But in no way under appreciated.
Walking next to a Roman wall, and through the remains of Roman forts built under command of Emperor Hadrian in the year 122 AD is one of the coolest things about this remarkable trail.
We built a rest day in the middle at Once Brewed, staying at a hostel next door to an amazing brewery (Twice Brewed Inn – highly recommend). While my friend rested, after having become quite ill during the hike, I took the opportunity to explore the surrounding area. I visited housesteads and a museum located next to the best preserved Roman Fort along the trail.
Don’t overlook the forts and historic sites you pass, and build time in to your itinerary to visit them properly.
We walked along country roads, long stretches of grassy riverside trails, through fields, over hills with breathtaking views and through small villages lined with English cottages and quaint churches. We walked along miles of the still-standing wall, over a dozen forts, and even a temple.
Part of the trail took us through two cities, my hometown of Carlisle in the west, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the east. The hike ended as it began, with a simple marker and a reminder of the length and historic significance of this extraordinary trail.
Tell us about your highs or the most memorable moment during your experience
It simply had to be walking along a Roman wall that was built around 2000 years ago, passing forts, a temple and other sites with such history. Seeing the Roman wall snaking off into the distance over a hill knowing that it stretches for mile and miles in either direction. That’s pretty incredible.
I’ve been living in Canada for over a dozen years now, so getting to spend such quality time in the area I’m from in the UK reminded me how much I love Britain and how lucky I was to grow up where I did.
Did you experience any lows or challenges?
My friend got really ill on our second day and I know it was a major struggle for her to continue. But we’d planned this for almost a year so she insisted on continuing. Luckily we’d built a day off from hiking in the middle of the hike, so she took that day to fully rest and sleep.
Because of her health issues we did alter some of our accommodation plans along the way, opting for a hut one night and a B&B the other instead of the tent camping spots we’d planned in order to get a good rest.
Luckily there was only one day with major rain – but it was at this point I realised I didn’t have a rain cover for my backpack so we had to fashion something together with a garbage bag while standing in a field while it was pouring down!
How did you feel upon completing your journey?
There were tears. But happy tears. It was a real sense of accomplishment, more so given some of the struggles we’d had along the way, especially my friend who had been quite ill.
The trail ends at Wallsend near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and is marked by a sign that says “I Walked Hadrian’s Wall”. I had bought t-shirts before the hike from the tourist information office in Carlisle that said the same thing, and surprised my friend with them. So we were able to take our photos in front of the sign and celebrate the end of our journey. Our legs were tired but we were both beyond happy at our achievement.
What two items could you have not done without and why?
1. Some cash
In a world of credit cards, don’t forget to pack some loose change if you’re walking Hadrian’s Wall. Something I’m glad I brought with me.
There are honesty boxes set up where locals have created small snack sheds along the way. You’ll need cash if you want to grab a chocolate bar, hot drink or Pot Noodle to keep you going – and a nice change from trail mix and typical hiking snacks.
2. Hiking poles
Not everyone uses them or likes them, but I found them particularly helpful on this trail.
The long distances mean you can become really tired towards the end, so the poles helped support me a little more. They also gave a sense of safety when walking through fields with a sign that warned of a “bull in field”.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
Of the three nights we planned to camp, we only ended up in our tent one night.
If I were to do this again I probably would book accommodation like B&Bs, huts or hotels and skip the tent.
These are long hiking days, and there was nothing better than having a shower when we had those facilities.
This is already a huge challenge, why make it more uncomfortable than it has to be?
We also thought because we were camping we would be cooking our own camping food on a little stove. In reality there are lots of places to eat along the way if you plan your accommodation well. We only used our stove once so between that, the camping food and the tent we had a lot more gear than we needed.
What advice or tips would you give to someone looking at doing the same?
You’ll be faced with the option of walking Hadrian’s Wall from east to west (Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway) or west to east. We chose west to east mostly because my family lived nearer that end of the wall, but also because we’d read that the wind would more often be at your back rather than in your face.
We met a lot of people heading west on the hike who agreed they wish they’d done the other direction, the same as us.
On the most exposed areas of the Wall they had the wind in their face for most of it and it was an extra challenge.
Another tip would be to look into a luggage service. They will pick your large bag up in the morning and drop it off at your campsite in the afternoon to save you from carrying everything with you. That left us with a modest daypack which made the hike a lot easier.
Don’t be a hero, use the luggage service, it’s totally worth it.
How has walking Hadrian’s Wall influenced or changed your perspective?
It definitely made me reevaluate my hiking capabilities. This felt like such a daunting task when I started planning but, even with some long days and tired legs and feet, I successfully walked the entire length of Hadrian’s Wall from coast to (almost) coast.
Since then, other hikes or challenges I thought might be too difficult felt more within reach.
Another thing about long distance hikes in the middle of nowhere is that it’s a great opportunity to completely disconnect. Days of walking in nature and no WiFi, it was bliss.
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