The Personal Website of Jeremy Boles

2025 Trek Across Hadrian’s Wall

A walk across the waistland of England.

Hadrian’s Wall Path runs 84 miles coast to coast, Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend, along the line of the Roman frontier across the narrowest part of England. A week is the usual pace.

I walked it west to east from the 27th of August to the 3rd of September, 2025. Eight days on the relaxed itinerary in the seventh edition of Henry Stedman’s guide, in bed-and-breakfasts, inns, and pubs, carrying everything, on my own. It sat inside a longer trip: into Edinburgh on the 24th of August, a day in Stirling, home from Edinburgh on the 9th of September.

My travelogue of the walk: A Walk Across the Waistland of England.

Notes for next time

West to east. The first three days are flat and ramp you up for the crags in the middle, and day one ends in Carlisle. That is the last town with shops.

Buy the blister kit there. Bandages, disinfectant, sock liners, one of every treatment Boots stocks. I had blisters by the end of the first afternoon and there is no pharmacy after Carlisle.

Nothing stands between Once Brewed and Chollerford. No village with rooms, no inn. By about mile ten there is no way to stop early.

The crags are the difficulty. West of Walltown Country Park it is walking; east of it, up and down all afternoon. My pack was 20 pounds and by the end of that day it had stopped being equipment.

Itinerary

Eight walking days. The nights are where I stayed, not recommendations. I would stay at the Samson Inn again.

Date Stage Night
26 Aug travel: Stirling → Carlisle by train, bus 93 to the coast Shore Gate House B&B
27 Aug Bowness-on-Solway → Carlisle Ashleigh House
28 Aug Carlisle → Newtown Hadrian’s Wall Studio
29 Aug Newtown → Gilsland Samson Inn
30 Aug Gilsland → Once Brewed (the crags) Twice Brewed Inn
31 Aug Once Brewed → Chollerford The George
1 Sep Chollerford → East Wallhouses Robin Hood Inn
2 Sep East Wallhouses → Newburn The Keelman
3 Sep Newburn → Newcastle upon Tyne flat near Leazes Park

I stopped at Newcastle. The path runs a few more miles east to Wallsend, where the wall ended, and I did not walk them.

Gear

I brought my usual travel kit plus a few things for this trip. The whole load came to about 20 pounds. That was too much.

Clothes

  • Rain jacket
  • Quick-drying clothes
  • Waterproof boots
  • Linen cap

The quick-drying clothes are the entire trick. You are washing something in a sink most nights, and a shirt that dries by morning means you can carry two instead of five.

Dinguses

The pedometer was the best £20 I spent. On a day when you have no idea whether you are doing well, a number is a kindness.

Miscellany

The drying line goes up in every room and the socks go on it. Carrying food is right — there are stretches with nothing on them, and nights you won’t want to go back downstairs and face a dining room — but size the bag for the trip you’re taking. I brought half the nuts home.

Bookmarks