The Journey North. Day 6 Friday 27th Apr 2018
From: Hadrian’s Wall Camping, Melkridge. To:
na Mileage: 0000
Hurrah the wind has dropped to virtually nothing and the sun
is shining. Let’s grab a quick healthy breakfast of Weetabix, grapes and blue
berries, swallow a mug of T and get off.
It is our intention to walk to
Sycamore gap today. For those of you who may be at a loss to realise where that
is, that is the spot in the film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves where Kevin
Costner and Morgan Freeman first meet with the Sherriff of Nottingham’s men.
The Sherriff’s men are chasing a young boy for poaching and he has climbed up
said tree in an attempt to escape the dogs. Ever since the Hollywood
blockbuster it has been one of the most visited spots on the wall. Well. Sort
of. It is a shortish walk from the nearest car park and this section of the
wall is a bit hilly. So you don’t get many vehicle borne ‘walkers’.
I apologise here for I am not
using the O.S. letter co-ordinates but hey all you need to do is find
Haltwhistle, trace North to the wall and the six figure GR will log you on.
Depart Hadrian’s Wall Campsite
GR731658 and walk N. Just before the B6318 we checked out two Roman lime kilns
in a field on our left which, after 2000 years were starting to look a bit
dilapidated.
Crossing the main road we entered a field and walking the public
footpath joined the wall at the tarmac road to the East of Turret 41a. GR
727668. There is an obvious foundation feature on the ground. We turned East
and followed the line of the wall. The wall sits on top of the crags and is not
the 3m x 6m high structure it once was. In fact it is barely a metre wide and a
metre and a half tall. In this terrain seemingly little of the wall has been
robbed to build elsewhere. It’s too difficult to access and remove it. In any
case this practice was outlawed in the early 1900’s. The vast majority of the
wall has disappeared, removed for farm buildings, pubs, houses, walls and roads.
Today we will meet a few walkers
and as is the way of things one normally asks, Where are you going? Where have you come from? This then elicits more
stories especially if they’re local. One guy related a story about Brian Adams,
he of ‘Everything I do I do for you’ the Prince of Thieves Film soundtrack.
When he was visiting Newcastle for a concert a while back someone asked him if
there was anywhere he particularly wanted to visit and he said Sycamore Gap.
 |
| The Tree at Sycamore Gap. |
 |
| Same spot as Morgan Freeman sat in the film. I think! |
 |
| How about that. Two for the price of one. |
