Sycamore Gap

Iconic I know and familiar to many from Prince of Thieves, but this is where I wanted to walk to today and I wasn’t disappointed, so it had to be today’s blip.

We woke to thick mist and I didn’t wonder whether we would see anything but the sun was up as we left breakfast and I changed into a T shirt. We were at Houseteads Fort by 9.00am with hardly anyone in the car park.

At the Fort we were directed by a gentleman whose first job on arrival in the morning was removing the sheep dirt! He sent us to the start of the route which is initially along the top of the actual wall through a small wood. Great views in both directions.

We passed two milecastles, number 37 and 38 they are numbered from the east. The numbers, although referring to Roman miles, indicate that the estimate in Haltwhistle is correct as the total length of the wall is 80 Roman miles (73 actual miles)

The path follows the wall so some very steep inclines and descents. We stopped for a short while at the Sycamore Gap before returning along the military road which was thankfully a generally flatter broad grass swathe.

Back at Housesteads it was heaving but we managed to get an outdoor table for a coffee. It was so hot by this stage I don’t think anyone wanted to sit at them. We decided not to queue for the museum or the fort

What a lovely day and short break, thank you Grace for giving us the excuse! Hopefully we will be back.

Extra is a view of the wall with Chris checking the route.