Day 3: East Wallhouses to Wall

Okay, more English countryside! But this time, it has morphed from farmland to pasture. Sheep (Baaa -- that's what sheep said!). Small forest (Fanghorn, or Sherwood?). Roman earthworks. I wish some of the pictures I took could show the depth of the landscapes that surrounded me.

The hiking is SO MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE without that darned pack on my back! I was not meant to be a beast of burden...

For the most part, the trail is following the B 6318 highway, which is also called the Military Road. In 1745, General Wade was chasing Bonnie Prince Charlie, who was pillaging his way from Scotland into England. Wade made a critical tactical error and planned to ambush Bonnie Prince Charlie in Newcastle. The Bonnie Prince, however, was over on the other side of the island making his advance. So Wade's army had to speed-build a road to move the troops to intercept the invaders.

This military road was built with Roman wall stones, right ON TOP of wall's path, for several miles. The roadway stayed, and ultimately modernized into the current B 6318. So today's Hadrian's Wall Path goes alongside of this highway, but not right on the road -- just a few yards from it, inside the fences of cropland and pastures.

Ultimately I come upon another piece of Wall at Planetrees. And what a neat piece it is -- it shows very clearly where the Romans shifted their building style from a wide foundation and wide wall (requiring lots of resources and manpower), to a wide foundation with a narrow wall (requiring fewer resources and less manpower). Resources have to be conserved somewhere, even if you're the Roman Empire...

And finally, I come upon my quarters for the night -- the Hadrian Hotel in Wall. (I took the picture of it the next morning, after returning the SD card to the camera).