All the enjoyment of walking without the discomforts, and with a most engaging Roman military archaeologist walking with you - informal, healthy but not too hearty!
£1345 (Sgl Sup 150)
Tue 6th - Wed 14th July 2010, 9 days with Dr Mike Bishop
Tour Manager: Simon Ashley | Availability: Singles Full | Doubles Full
Introduction
The new Hadrian’s Wall footpath crosses wild and beautiful terrain, its route covering the shortest distance coast to coast across the country, following Hadrian’s ambitious frontier.
We are walking west to east, starting gently along the shore of the Solway Firth, watching for the first surviving traces of the wall and its structures east of Carlisle, and ending with the excavated fort and reconstructed bath-house by the shipyards at Wallsend, with an expert to explain the archaeology.
This is a real walking holiday (up to 12.5 miles per day) but with the luxury of a coach pick-up each evening, a return to a comfortable hotel and a lift to start again the next day.
The Hadrian’s Wall footpath is well-defined, but can be rough underfoot and steep in places. However, there are superb views over the Cumbrian and Northumbrian countryside, once important for strategic reasons, now a wonderful bonus for our walk. You will come away with a very different understanding of Hadrian’s gigantic undertaking.
Forts, milecastles and turrets; road, vallum and road-ditch; phallic carvings, inscriptions and the structure of the wall itself - Mike will introduce you to the tactical and strategic consideration of such a complex frontier system, and try to explain what Hadrian’s plan might have been when he ‘built a wall, eighty miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians’ (Historia Augusta, Vita Hadriani xi, 2)
Itinerary
Day One
Meet in the evening (at 18:30) for lecture at our Wetheral hotel.
Day Two (8.4 miles)
To Bowness-on-Solway, where the walk along the course of the wall begins on the shore of the Solway Firth, with views across to Scotland. The walking is flat and easy here, and there is very little to see of the wall, which may have crossed the marsh (below), since virtually all of it was robbed away in later times. Pub lunch at Burgh-by-Sands and then by coach to the Tullie House Museum Carlisle.
Day Three (11 miles or 12.3 miles)
Today we follow the line of the wall from Crosby-on-Eden, stopping for a pub lunch (5.2 miles). Then past Hare Hill to the fort and museum at Birdoswald (6 miles). Just outside the fort the wall is marked with one of the many good-luck phalli sculpted by the builders. You can take the coach from here, or continue to Willowford bridge abutments and to Gilsland (1.3 miles, steep down and up) and then take coach to hotel.
Day Four (7.1 miles or 10.1 miles)
This morning we continue to the Roman Army Museum at Carvoran (3.9 miles). Packed lunch here before continuing over Walltown Crags, past Great Chesters to Burnhead (3.2 miles). Great Chesters remains an atmospheric ruin, having been largely unconsolidated - see picture below of an altar by the guard chamber of the eastern gateway. Optional pick-up, or on over Cawfield Crags and milecastle 42 (pictured left) and Windshield Crags to Turret 39B (near Steel Rigg) (3 miles). Coach to hotel.
Day Five (7.2 miles)
We divert from the course of the wall this morning, to visit Vindolanda, where the writing tablets voted Britain’s greatest treasure were found. This was one of the Stanegate forts, founded in the 1st rather than the 2nd century, and is famous because of the extensive excavations which have been taking place here for decades. Back on course by coach to Steel Rigg and walk along the crags to Housesteads (3.1 miles). The whole central range of buildings is displayed here, including the commander’s house, the granaries, and a possible hospital. Lunch here. Continue to Carrawburgh fort and mithraeum (4.1 miles). Coach to hotel.
Day Six (4.2 miles)
We pick up the trail again at Carrawburgh, and continue (4.1 miles) past ‘Limestone Corner’ (actually whinstone, and the most northerly point on the wall system), to Chesters (Cilurnum Roman fort), on the bank of the river North Tyne. The alcoves for storing clothes in the changing room of an extra-mural bath-house by the river are pictured below. The wall was carried over the river by a bridge, the abutment of which still survives. Short drive to our hotel.
Day Seven (12.4 miles)
Walk to Brunton turret, past Planetrees (a farmhouse built out of stones from the wall) to the Portgate, where Dere Street crosses the Wall (6.9 miles). Pub lunch and then on to Harlow Hill (5.5 miles). Coach to hotel.
Day Eight (9.6 miles)
Walk to Heddon-on-the-Wall for lunch (4 miles). We finish at the section of wall (in a garage forecourt) at Denton Burn (5.6 miles). Increasingly now the urban sprawl of Newcastle upon Tyne makes the course of the wall more difficult to determine, and the walking less attractive, so we miss out a stretch through the suburbs - but there is still some impressive archaeology to see tomorrow at the eastern end. Coach to hotel.
Day Nine
By coach to Benwell, then to the Great North Museum in Newcastle (opened in 2009). By metro to the city centre, to see remains of Newcastle fort, then by metro to Wallsend site and museum. The excavated fort sits beside Swan Hunter’s shipyard, and the museum observation tower allows a wonderful view of both Roman and industrial archaeology. A working bath-house has been reconstructed on the site. Disperse late afternoon at Newcastle Station, or return to your hotel.
Many of the photos on this page have come from Mike Bishop’s website which is a pictorial record of features and views along the wall: www.perlineamvalli.org.uk
Included
WHAT’S INCLUDED
- Local Travel Private a/c coach to the beginning and from the end of each day's walking; luggage transferred on Day 4.
Walking - Good path, up and downhill in places. Walking distances are indicated in the itinerary. Most of everyday will be spent walking or visiting sites along the way, and you must be prepared for this with suitable footwear and weatherproof clothing.
Meals All Meals included (drinks are not).
Guide Lecturer Not to be confused with "guest lecturers"! The guide lecturer will be with you from breakfast to supper, and probably even a drink in the bar afterwards. There is the occasional site where they may not be allowed to guide because of local regulations (we normally manage to circumnavigate these) but otherwise the guides are just that. They will have been chosen because of specialist knowledge and their ability to communicate and interest you. After 22 years of making tours worldwide, we are highly appreciative of the attributes of a good guide, and intensely critical of people who do not possess them. If you would like to know more about Dr Mike Bishop, please click his name. - Tour Manager We never know how best to call the very special people whom we choose to accompany you on your tour. They are usually employed in this capacity only by us, and have been trained to do things in the Andante way - unobtrusive, friendly and quietly efficient.
- Fieldnotes written for the tour.
Entry & Tips Entry to all sites in programme; tips included.
Hotels
3 nights in a comfortable hotel in the village of Wetheral, close to the railway station;
5 nights in a friendly and comfortable 3* hotel in Hexham.
Comments
What Did You Enjoy Most About This Tour?
The middle 4 days when we did the most demanding walking but in the most fantastic scenery and amazing archaeology. That sense of shared achievement, adventure and fun was fantastic. Guest, July 2009
I loved the way in which the group gelled, more or less from the beginning of the tour, due to the friendliness of the mainly single people on the tour and the support between Mike and Sarah. I also loved the countryside and spectacular views on the walk. Guest, July 2009
An excellent holiday, which suited us very well as regular walkers with an interest in archaeology. Guest, June 2006
The ambience, the views, Mike Bishop's knowledge & friendliness and Sarah Mayer's picnics and laughter. Guest, June 2006
The combination of walking the Trail and learning about the landscape and the Romans, forts etc. I have recommended Andante to many people since I returned home. Guest, June 2006
I consider myself to be a walker with an interest in archaeology and this holiday provided me with the added opportunity for a good challenging walk with the added bonus of learning more about the activities of the Romans and the Wall from an expert "on the hoof". Guest, June 2006
Reading List
This list is no more than a guide to some books that you may find useful to read in advance of the tour. Talks given on the tour will attempt to fill in the background to what we are seeing, so no prior knowledge or pre-tour cramming is expected or needed. In many cases, we expect that you will find some of these books even more interesting and useful to read once the tour is over.
Guide Lecturer's Choice
Breeze, D.J. and Dobson, B., 2000: Hadrian's Wall, ed.4 (Penguin), Harmondsworth
If you only have time to read one book, make it the Breeze and Dobson volume.
Richards, M., 2004: Hadrian's Wall Path (Cicerone), Milnethorpe
If you have room to take only one book, take the Richards volume.
Roman Warfare
Campbell, B., 2002, War and Society in Imperial Rome, 31 BC-AD 284 (Routledge), London.
Gilliver, C.M., 1999, The Roman Art of War (Tempus), Stroud.
Goldsworthy, A.K., 1996, The Roman Army at War 100BC-AD200 (OUP), Oxford.
Arms and battle
Bishop, M.C. & Coulston, J.C.N. 2006, Roman Military Equipment, ed.2 (Oxbow), Oxford.
Feugère, M. 2002, Weapons of the Romans (Tempus), Stroud.
Wilkins, A. 2003, Roman Artillery, Shire Archaeology 86 (Shire), Princes Risborough.
General texts on the Roman army and soldiers
Birley, A. 2002: Garrison Life at Vindolanda: A Band of Brothers (Tempus), Stroud
Campbell, B, 1994, The Roman Army, 32BC-AD337: A Sourcebook (Routledge), London.
Campbell, J.B, 1984, The Emperor and the Roman Army 31BC-AD235 (OUP), Oxford.
Cheesman, G.L., 1914, The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army, Oxford.
Davies, Roy, 1989, (ed. D. Breeze and V. Maxfield), Service in the Roman Army
Hadrian's Wall: General Works
Bedoyère, G. de la, 1998: Hadrian's Wall: History and Guide (Tempus), Stroud
Breeze, D.J. 2006: Handbook to the Roman Wall, ed.14 (Society of Antiquaries), Newcastle
Fields, N. 2003: Hadrian's Wall AD 122-410 (Osprey), Oxford
Johnson, S. 2004: Hadrian's Wall (Batsford), London
Jones, G.D.B. & Woolliscroft, D.J. 2001: Hadrian's Wall from the Air (Tempus), Stroud
Moffat, A. 2008: The Wall. Rome's Greatest Frontier (Birlinn), Edinburgh (TV series companion book, so a very popular' approach)
Hadrian's Wall: Sites
Wilmott, T., 2001: Birdoswald Roman Fort. 1800 Years on Hadrian's Wall (Tempus), Stroud
McCarthy, M., 2002: Roman Carlisle and the Lands of the Solway (Tempus), Stroud
Crow, J. 2004: Housesteads: A Fort and Garrison on Hadrian's Wall (Tempus), Stroud
Birley, R., 1977: Vindolanda: A Roman Frontier Post on Hadrian's Wall (Thames & Hudson), London
Hadrian's Wall: Maps and Guides
Burton, A. 2003: Hadrian's Wall Path (Aurum Press), London
Ordnance Survey 1972: Map of Hadrian's Wall (very rare; later editions are awful)
Ordnance Survey Explorer 1:25,000 sheets 314, 315, 316, OL43
NB I actually road- (or rather Wall-) tested the Richards and Burton books and found the Richards one much easier to use when walking west to east. The Burton has nice maps, but that's about all!
Hadrian's Wall: Multimedia
Hadrian's Wall Path ‛From the Air' (Countryside Agency), Newcastle (DVD of a real-time helicopter flight along the Wall from east to west; nice music)
Per Lineam Valli my Wall website with photographs of much of the surviving bits of the monument, a Google Earth file of the whole Wall system, and various useful links.
http://perlineamvalli.org.uk
Book Now
Price and confirmed details for this tour will appear in our full brochure due out in October 2009. You can reserve a place on this tour before October on payment of a deposit. If you then change your mind, we will refund your deposit in full.
