Saturday Walk - Brampton to Haltwhistle or Greenhead (via Hadrian's Wall) [Cumbria/Carlisle Trip] [New Walk]

Length: 27.4 km (17.0 mi) or 17.9 km/11.1 mi

Ascent/Descent: 461/421m or 285/231 

Net Walking Time: ca. 6 ½ hours or 4 ½ hours

Toughness: 7 out of 10 or 4 out of 10

 

Take the 09.15 Brampton (for Haltwhistle and Newcastle) bus (Line 685) from Carlisle Bus Station Stand 5 (also stops Warwick Square and along Warwick Road, including by the Premier Inn!), arrives Brampton, Shoulder of Mutton/Market Place at 09.38. 

Return buses from Greenhead Bypass (on the short walk): xx.26 to 18.26, then xx.29 and 8 minutes earlier from Haltwhistle Market Place!

 

From the centre of Brampton, you follow a quiet route up to the Brampton Ridge (with a view of the ridge holding Hadrian's Wall) and down through the wooded Quarrybeck Gorge to Lanercost Old Bridge across the River Irthing and past Lanercost Priory up to Haytongate on the line of Hadrian’s Wall. Turn east along a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall Path containing plenty of Roman era remains. The landscape consists mainly of pastures with some woods and is mildly undulating apart from the crossings of the Banks Burn and the River Irthing.

The section west of the River Irthing was originally constructed as a Turf Wall, 6-metre wide at its base, and between Milecastles 49 and 51 the Stone Wall later followed a line north of the Turf Wall. Sights to be seen en route: fine stretches of Vallum and Turf Wall, some signal towers and turret bases, the highest surviving piece of Wall (only short and partly rebuilt though); Birdoswald/Banna Fort (ticketed but can be overlooked from the path), Willowford Bridge = the stranded bridge (the river has changed course), some fine bits of Wall, in places with Broad Wall base topped with Narrow Wall; Milecastle 48 at Gilsland, the best-preserved of all.

At the Tipalt Burn, the Shortcut to Greenhead and its bus stop turns south, while the Main Walk passes Thirlwall Castle ruins (12^th century, made from Wall stones) and rises to the Walltown Quarry, close to the Carvoran/Magnis Fort and the Roman Army Museum. You then ascend steadily out of Walltown Quarry onto the Walltown Crags, before descending into the cut created by the Haltwhistle Burn, en route passing some long stretches of Wall and Great Chesters/Aesica Fort. The Vallum is mostly well away from the Wall though.

For the descent into the South Tyne Valley to the historic market town of Haltwhistle, you follow the Haltwhistle Burn initially across the open upland through the Roman Military Zone, with impressive traces of Roman Marching Camps and Cemeteries, Haltwhistle Burn Roman Fortlet and Stanegate Roman Road. The Burn then enters the steep wooded Burn Gorge, full of remnants of a thick industrial past based on mining, brickworks and the power of the fast flowing water.

Bus Shortcuts:

Line 681 (Birdoswald – Haltwhistle Station – Alston) has a bus leaving Birdoswald at 13.30, calling Gilsland, Bridge Inn at 13.36 and Greenhead, Village Hall at 13.44. 

Line AD122 (Walltown Quarry - Haltwhistle - Hexham) starts at Walltown Quarry and also stops in Greenhead, Village Centre; relevant buses are the 13.45 and the 15.45 from Walltown Quarry (stops 4 minutes later in Greenhead). 

 

Elenvenses/Lunch: Lanercost Tea Room, Haytongate Farm Snack Hut, Coombe Crag Farm Honesty Snack Shack, Birdoswald Fort Café, House of Meg Café, Samson Inn and Bridge Inn (in Gilsland, a little off path),  Greenhead Hotel and Ye Olde Forge Tea Room (in Greenhead, 5 mins off path), Roman Army Museum Tea Room (2 mins off path). 

Tea: The Greenhead lunch options listed above are tea options on the short walk. Plenty of options in Haltwhistle on the main walk (for details see the pdf).

 

For walk directions, map, photos and gpx/kml files click here. t=swc.413.b