Wall to wall walking

 Wall to wall walking. October 2nd

This is a new walk for me although it is in familiar territory. Starting and finishing in the village of Wall it is covered by OS OL 43 Hadrian’s Wall.

Head west on the A69, just beyond Hexham turn right and go throufg Acomb and on to the village of Wall. There is parking at the north end but the lay-by had a small fleet of large trucks so we parked by the village green.

We had breakfast in the cafe in Chollerford, just across the bridge and only a couple of miles from Wall. The Riverside Kitchen, the bacon sandwich was a five star offering.

                          Parking by the green in Wall

We set off down the road from the cars, passing the church and spotting the gate on the left hand side that took us to a short steep climb through woodland before coming out into fields. Some tricky stiles on the way.

                      I was told this was "The Lockey Stile", it needed care.

Several fields and a couple of short stretches of woodland we arrived at Fallowfield Farm. (mile 1). Turning north to pass the farm we then turned right to cross more fields to the wooded Red Burn. Once out of the trees we reached the next farm, Codlaw Dene. The road through the farm brought us to a junction. Turning right and turning diretion we had a stretch of road to walk  before turning left near Hangman's Hill. A couple more fields brought us to a ruined farm house and an outbuilding (mile 4). Using a wall as a windbreak we held a Herbie.

             The wall behind the righthand building served as a windbreak during Herbie time (Cookies, Latte tarts, Sweet and savoury of course, from Mrs A, of course.

Leaving the old buildings and negotiation a puzzle of three gates we arrived at The Military Road, officially the B631.8 and in this stretch built by vandals on top of Hadrian's Wall. 

Crossing the road we took to the Hadrian's Wall Path, which is also St Oswald's Way at this point.

The ditch on the north side of Hadrian's Wall.

After some distance short of half a mile we left the long distance path, headed over Keepwick Fell and found the roughest farm track seen in years. Stumbling down hill with deep ruts made by tractor wheels that were too narrow to walk comfortably we eventually and thankfully came to a road , turned left and walked through the three Cocklaws  to the A6079.

Fortunately we were on the road for a short time before joining the Tyne Trail and making use of the footpath alongside the North Tyne.

                  It wasn't very suitable for humans either

                                        The North Tyne

At Chollerford Bridge (mile 8) we left the trail and walked uphill to the road junction, turned right and having crossed Hadrian's Wall again were back in the village.

On the way home we called in at the Fox and Hounds in Wylam to rehydrate. TTL and zero Guinness.

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2026

The walk is 9 miles, mostly easy going. The views are worth the effort.

                            St George's Church, Wall, late 19th century

                        Best type of stile