Sunday Girl

LETJOG – Day 34: Sunday 20 June – HEXHAM to BARRASFORD (11 miles)

So good to be together for the next two days of the walk, and after a good breakfast, Rachel and I set off northwards, crossing the Tyne and through Acomb, before making our way up amongst the fields of barley to the line of Hadrian’s Wall, at Brunton Bank – another LETJOG milestone reached on my northward journey. At this point the Wall is little more than a mound in the turf, with most of the stone having been pilfered for alternative buildings and boundary walls over the centuries subsequent to the Roman retreat from Great Britain. There are however some information boards, and the tour of the isolated Church of St Oswald on the ridge at Heavensfield is certainly recommended.

From the line of the Wall one can look down across the fields towards the Border country: later, viewing upslope across this same pasture land, from our picnic lunch-spot, one could appreciate the daunting prospect the Picts might have had in contemplating any southward incursion against the Roman defences.

Our afternoon walk concluded with a look around the small village of Chollerton, including the Church and the small exhibition in the adjacent hearse room and stable-block, before joining the River Tyne Trail through wooded slopes for the short distance into Barrasford, and our inn for the night.