& ’s Wall

From The Sill or Steel Rigg Car Park

Route: Start & Parking: Steel Rigg Car Park Toilets: The Sill or The Sill (car parking charges apply at both) Grade: Moderate Local Services: and Terrain: Footpaths, tracks and road, Distance: 6.5 miles / 10.2 km stiles, gates, steps, may be muddy Please keep dogs on a lead, livestock Time: 3 hours - 3 hours 30 mins Description: A walk along the most scenic (sheep and cattle) graze the fields Map: OS OL43 Explorer 1:25000 part of Hadrian’s Wall, involving some along Hadrian’s Wall Hadrian’s Wall short, sharp ascents. Take time to visit Vindolanda Roman Fort and The Sill.

Please use an OS map on this walk © Crown Copyright and database rights (2019). Ordnance Survey 100022521 G

START: Steel Rigg H To Newcastle B Car Park SYCAMORE F GAP E D C * 8 PEEL BOTHY 631 B COTTAGE B oad ary R Milit

I TWICE BREWED INN A VINDOLANDA START: THE SILL Vindolanda National Landscape Discovery Centre H At the road turn right and walk 50 J metres, cross carefully, and head down K the road signed ‘Bardon Mill’. Go past Crindledykes Limekiln. A C STARTING FROM OUTSIDE THE SILL. Climb up the steep stone steps to the I At the junction turn right and keep Facing the main entrance follow the path top of Peel Crags and continue on the path following the road downhill. around the right hand side of the building alongside Hadrian’s Wall as it goes up and to the wicket gate by the main road. down to 39 and Sycamore Gap. J Turn right down the single track Cross the road into the small woodland, road signed ‘Vindolanda’. Go past the D and turn left up the footpath alongside Continue on, up Highshield Crags entrance to Vindolanda Roman Fort, the road, heading uphill. where you look down to Crag Lough. well worth a visit if you have time. Keep Take care along the crags - steep drops! to the road, passing Causeway House B At the corner cross the road by Peel E with its heather thatched roof. Bothy Cottage. Go through the gate Follow the path through the wood signed ‘Hadrian’s Wall ’, keep to the left and go through the gate, then another K Turn right at the T junction and hand path heading up to Hadrian’s Wall. gate on your right. head along the road until you come to Go through the gate in Hadrian’s Wall, F Cross over the farm track and keep The Sill on your left (entry is free and and turn right down the flagged path. to the path through the gate, signed well worth a visit). ‘Housesteads ’. Follow the path up to the STARTING FROM STEEL RIGG CAR top of Hotbank Crags. If you started from Steel Rigg Car Park P*ARK. Go through the gate in the far corner follow the path around the right hand side G Go down the steep stone steps, at of the wall, signed ‘Hadrian’s Wall ’ (near of the building to the wicket gate by the the Pennine Way sign do not cross any the ticket machine). Head straight on and main road. Cross the road into the small stile. Instead, turn south (right) along the turn left through the gate. Follow the foot - woodland, and turn left up the footpath grassy track that zig-zags downhill to the path downhill, Hadrian’s Wall is on your alongside the road. The car park is on main road. right. the right at the top of the hill. Information Crag Lough

NORTHUMBERLAND NATIONAL PARK

THE SILL: National Landscape Discovery Centre Kirknewton

Vindolanda & Hadrian’s Wall Walk

The Sill, National Landscape Discovery Centre

HADRIAN’S WALL

THE SILL Local facilities A little bit of history Drop in to The Sill: National Landscape The Emperor Hadrian gave orders for the Discovery Centre for information on Wall to be built in AD122, as part of a Directions to the walk start point what to do and where to go. Explore grand design to fix the frontiers of the From Newcastle: Follow the A69 west, our interactive exhibition explaining how . It is 73 miles (117 km) just after take the A6079 (Acomb). landscapes have changed over thousands long, or 80 Roman miles, and took Turn left onto the B6318 (Military Road) of years. Relax in the café and savour the about six years to build! for approx 12 miles, to The Sill: National local food, and visit the whin grassland The runs parallel to the south side Landscape Discovery Centre. Turn right rooftop for a view of Hadrian’s Wall. of Hadrian’s Wall, and is a flat-bottomed up to Steel Rigg Car Park which is on The YHA next door offers high spec hostel ditch (in some places a double ditch) with the right. accommodation perfect for exploring a mound either side. Originally it could From : Follow the A69 east Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site. only be crossed at a Roman Fort. for approx 18 miles. Turn left onto the The Twice Brewed Inn offers a wide The Military Road (B6318) was built after B6318 (Military Road) at Greenhead. range of refreshments and has its own the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, when the After approx 5 miles, at The Sill turn left micro-brewery. Whilst Bardon Mill, 4 miles poor condition of the roads between up to Steel Rigg Car Park, which is on south, has a village shop and cafe, a pub, Newcastle and Carlisle prevented General the right. pottery and petrol. George Wade moving his troops to stop Public Transport Bonnie Prince Charlie’s march south from T: 0871 2002233 Wildlife to look out for . A new road was built and has www.traveline.org.uk This area is dominated by the dramatic been known ever since as the Military Hadrian’s Wall Bus AD122 - Summer only, whin sill ridge along which Hadrian’s Wall Road. stops at both The Sill and Vindolanda. is built. This rock was here 295 million Discover all about Roman life at www.gonortheast.co.uk/timesfares/ad122 years before the Romans! Vindolanda Roman Fort and Rare whin grassland plants such Museum which has the largest as wild thyme, wild chive, Vindolanda Roman Fort collection of excavated Roman biting stonecrop, rockrose buildings and reconstructions and mountain pansy grow on along Hadrian’s Wall. It is also this hard rock. home to the famous ‘Vindolanda Birds such as snipe, curlew and Kestrel Tablets’ (Roman postcards), and skylark can be seen over the moorland, you can watch history being unearthed at whilst kestrel regularly fly above the crags the archaeological dig that take place on Hadrian’s Wall. every year during the summer months. An entrance charge applies, with a café Look out for waxcaps, a type of fungi, and shop for paying visitors only. that come in an array of bright colours - www.vindolanda.com visible between September to November. Photos ©: Laurie Campbell, Roger Clegg, NNPA.

Mountain Pansy Curlew ElsSdtoene lT oRwigeg r (pele) - a private house, no public access

Waxcap