Hitting the wall on an epic hike

By HILARY MACASKILL

After the event, the first man to walk Hadrian's Wall wrote a book about it, The First Man to Walk Hadrian's Wall, William Hutton's account of a superhuman journey.

In 1802, this 78-year-old had walked both ways in seven days and six hours. I made the mistake of reading it before embarking on this stroll and was profoundly unsettled by the realisation that in places it was so steep he had to go on all fours.

But in the intervening two centuries, the path has been cleared and made manageable for adults and children alike. There are opportunities to walk a short section of the wall if you prefer just a day trip, but for devoted hikers who insist on doing the whole thing, there are plenty of family friendly places to stay along the way.

When Mr Hutton started his epic hike, Tyneside looked very different. We started in Wallsend at Segedunum, where the outlines of the Roman fort are overlooked by a space-age observation tower. We strode along the back streets of Newcastle, marvelling at the preponderance of butchers, bike shops and tattoo parlours. On the outskirts, we found our first bit of wall in the forecourt of Charlie Brown's Autos and Tyres. Then, near the Halal Chippy, in a suburban street - Broomridge Avenue to be precise - the remains of the Temple of Antenociticus.

The residents and chip shops of suburban Newcastle can expect a steady stream of hikers from the end of this month, when the new £6m National Trail along Hadrian's Wall opens. Which is a good reason for making the journey now.

The grassy pathways of the newly signposted trail along the line of the wall will soon be crowded. To get the authentic old-fashioned experience, you need to march along the Military Road, built on top of the wall in the 18th-century at the behest of General Wade, in relative solitude.

It was the afternoon of the third day before we struck off into actual countryside and of course within minutes of leaving the tarmac, we got lost. Luckily, the prevalence of milecastles helped us re-establish our position, and soon we were seeing the wall behaving in a wall-like manner, i.e. more than six inches above ground, and continuous.

There it was, snaking along the crests of hills as far as you could see, just like the Great Wall of China. Well, a bit like the Great Wall of China. For two days of wilderness and windiness we felt as if we were on top of the world. But then it was back to the road.

To cover the 84-mile journey across the neck of Britain from the North Sea to the Irish Sea within a week involves putting one foot in front of another to notch up 12 miles a day.

At Planetrees, a section of the wall distinguished by having been saved by William Hutton from demolition by a local farmer, we met Peter and Robin. Peter was wearing a sou'wester hat and was carrying a ski-stick. That night we met them in Twice Brewed Inn near Bardon Mill, looking very shiny and scrubbed after the obligatory hot bath. But they too, we were glad to hear, were finding it hard going.

The average distance slipped a little during the walk, so we had to cover 19 miles on our last day. As we forced our painful feet over the last few miles (at least they were flat, across the mysterious saltmarshes bordering the Solway) a taxi drew up, disgorging Robin and Peter – now in long shorts and stubble – on their way back from journey's end at Bowness to catch the evening train at Carlisle. We shook each other's hands, took each other's photos, spoke of fellowship and solidarity, and walked on in a happy glow.

But they'd missed the best bit – staggering over the threshold of the King's Arms, on the site of the very last fort, two minutes after opening and 84 miles after our start, to be greeted with a round of applause from the handful of regulars. We even got a certificate to prove it.

- INDEPENDENT

www.hadrians-wall.org