Travel&Vacation

A ragged mist swallows the rolling hills and checkerboard farmland ahead of me. An icy wind whips at the hood of my jacket. I’m alone today, a solitary hiker following in the footsteps of history, and this is just what I came for: a bleak and breezy walk along the ruined skeleton of England’s most impressive ancient monument.

Two thousand years ago, the Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the north of Britain walled off to keep the advancing “barbarians” at bay. It took him six years and more than a million cubic meters of stone to do it, but by 128 AD his 70-mile barrier loomed defiantly over the undulating hills of Northumberland—and Hadrian’s Wall, the largest ancient structure in all of Northern Europe, was born.

It was, in nearly every sense, the Roman equivalent of China’s Great Wall. At the height of Rome’s power, the wall stood an imposing 15 feet high and 10 feet thick. It housed as many as 17,000 legionnaires and bristled with forts and watchtowers every third of a mile. And its goal was simple: Keep the northern savages from advancing into the south.

Day hikes along the wall

Though Hadrian’s Wall has stood for nearly two millennia, the actual way-marked long-distance path (LDP) that shares its name has only been a recognized national trail since 2003. The official trail spans 84 miles and runs east to west from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway, providing a coast-to-coast tour of the wild and empty landscape of Northern England. But there are ample accommodations and easy day hikes for those who just want a taste, as well.

I used the youth hostel in the tiny town of Once Brewed as my base of operations and explored the wall over a series of several long day hikes. Once Brewed is about a mile’s walk from the most spectacular section of the wall, which starts with the well-preserved remains of the Roman fort at Housesteads and ripples for miles along a barren ridge known as the Whinshield Crags until it reaches an equally remote stretch of hills called the Nine Nicks of Thirwall. All told, this section of the wall spans about 10 to 12 miles and is perfect for a long day hike.

Damian Parker, who runs the youth hostel at Once Brewed, estimates that about 10,000 visitors pass through Once Brewed each year on their way to explore the wall—and not just students, either. “Our guests are an even split of young families, backpackers, and individual walkers and cyclists,” says Parker. “A lot of people think hostels are just for the young, but this is not the case. We have a large body of adult guests from all over the world, and it is this mix of families and different people that makes a stay at a youth hostel a great experience.”

"Page 2"