Gadgie Walks: A walk from the centre of the universe

A walk from the centre of the universe, almost. August 22nd

Haltwhistle claims to be the geographical centre of Great Britain. Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles, comprising England, Scotland and wales.

The town is in the Tyne Valley, west of Newcastle on tha A69. Free parking is available on the roadside above Sainsbury's supermarket.

I know, I know, I should have cropped the lamp post out Today's walk is covered by OS OL 43 Hadrian's Wall.

The Newcastle to Carlisle railway runs through the town but Haltwhistle has nothing to do with trains. It's Old English for " The hill where the two rivers meet." (one being the Tyne the other the Haltwhistle Burn)

We had breakfast in The Pillar Box Cafe, small and very friendly. In line to be cafe of the year. Hope they win.

Haltwhistle claims to be the geographical centre of Great Britain, that is to remind you, the island composed of England, Scotland and Wales. The town also suffered from marauding Scots but they put the bunting out for us.

Walking east from the parked cars we found the sign leading us past the Burn Football Ground and down steps into the Haltwhistle Burn.

The burn climbs quite slowly, passing evidence of old mining operations until it reaches the B6318, usually called the Military Road. It was built to allow troops to move quickly from Newcastle to Carlisle after the 1745. Some of it on top of the wall!

Turning right on the road we walked a few hundred yards to a signpost just beyond a house. A footpath took us across fields to Hadrian's Wall at Cawfields.

Cawfields near the wall, once another mining area but now a picnic spot.

For the next three miles we walked alongside the remains of Hadrian's Wall. On this section it is very uppy and downy with short steep climbs, often with stone steps but also a couple of short scrambles. hard on the knees.

A mile castl, a section of wall and a turret. A Roman Imperial Mile was 0.92 of a British Imperial mile. As the name say there was one every mile on the wall and there were two turrets in between.

This section of the walk is part of the Pennine Journey, not to be confused with thje Pennine Way. A good number of walkers out, British, American, Australian and two Dutch men searching for the famous tree.

Reaching Steel Rigg, a popular car park with easy access to the wall we turned south to Once Brewed/Twice Brewed and the Sill restaurant, exhibition centre, shop and YHA. Picnic benches in the grounds made a good Herbie Spot.

A blurry Herbie: Apple pies with a strange green streak on the pastry, ginger cake made without any ginger, cookies and sweet and savoury from Mrs A. A blurry Margaret hugging the trunk of the famous Sycamore Gap tree. It was at this p;oint I realised there was a finger mark on the lens.

A clear view of treehugging Margaret, courtesy of Algarphotos Ltd

After a tour of the exhibition, well worth a visit, we headed down the road that takes visitors to Vindolanda, but we didn't. A little further on we turned right and walked along a very straight metalled road which turned into a grassy track before reaching a minor road.

Turning right we went downhill, passing Hill Top Farm and then taking the signed footpath on the left.

Hill Top Farm and .horses. I had cleaned the lens with a clean handkerchief.

The path took us across moorland to a minor road where we turned left and then followed the finger post for a footpath back to the Haltwhistle Burn , the Burn Football Ground and the cars.

On the way home we stopped at the Fox and Hounds in Wylam for TTL and alcohol free Guinness.