Day 8 – Hadrian's Wall Hike and back to Oxford via Train

We left the Twice-Brewed Inn after a somewhat fitful night before.  We just happened to be there on the night of the “pub quiz,”  a rowdy, music filled night of follies where patrons compete for admittedly worthless prizes, but have a lot of fun nonetheless.  That all ended about midnight and through the middle of it Pat chatted online with her brothers Bob and Mike at the beach in North Carolina.  At one point Bob said “I can't quite make out what you're saying but I hear something – that was the music from the pub below up.  We had fun trading vacation barbs, but I'm still betting that we are having more fun here in Britain!

After a hearty English breakfast, we drove our rental car north to the Housesteads site and left it there.  We caught the Hadrian's Wall bus – yes, there really is such a thing – south to the Once Brewed Visitor's Center and began our hike up to Steel Rigg, our entry point for Hadrian's Wall.  We started in a slight drizzle and a cool wind, which fortunately (due to Pat's careful planning) was at our backs.  As we climbed up the steep, rocky slope to the wall the sun came out partially and we intermittently had our jackets on and off throughout the hike.

We traveled by foot for three miles over a route made famous by Roman emperors and soldiers almost 2,000 years ago.  The wall through this section was mostly intact, and every Roman mile (slightly less than a statute mile) we came across a “mile castle” which would have housed several soldiers.  The views of the valley below, including too many sheep to count and at least four beautiful lochs at the base of the cliffs were spectacular.  We also passed by the symmetrical sycamore tree in the pass made famous in a 1991 Robin Hood movie with Kevin Costner.  This hike was everything we had hoped it would be and more.  The people along the trail were friendly; some were day hikers like us while others were through-hikers enjoying a longer route.  We ended at the Housesteads fort and returned easily to our car.

From there we drove back to Penrith to return the rental car and get on the train.  The back road route that we picked took us through a beautiful, high mountain pass with fantastic scenery.  Once there we visited the Penrith Castle before settling in for the four hour train ride back to Oxford.  Back at our home base with Jackie and Bob, we found time for one quick pub ale in the Trinity College beer cellar before calling it a night.