STEEL RIGG Northumberland
Where Hadrian’s Wall meets one of the North’s most dramatic natural features
H adrian’s Wall – built by the Roman Emperor in around AD122 – takes advantage of one of the most distinctive geological features in the country: the Whin Sill. This great sheet of hard volcanic rock stretches from Teesdale to the Farne Islands. The Romans’ use of the escarpment is one of the most impressive ways that man has exploited Earth’s geology to fortify human defences.
1. ONCE BREWED
Park at Steel Rigg (or hop off the bus at The Sill, the visitor centre at Once Brewed, and follow the road north to the starting point). Go through the gate at the south-eastern corner of the car park. The dramatic Steel Rigg appears immediately to your left. Continue along the path and turn left through a gate. Follow the path downhill, then steeply upwards on a rough stone path, and through a kissing gate at the top.
2. WHIN SILL
You are now standing on the Whin Sill. This layer of hard rock was created 295 million years ago, when magma was forced between
layers of limestone, sandstone and mudstone, and it cooled in thick sheets of dolerite. This high point gives great views over the surrounding mires. These ancient areas of peat bog harbour rare sphagnum mosses and grasses.
From now on it’s a matter of following the wall and the national trail as it dips and rises along Whin Sill. Every Roman mile (a distance of 1,000 paces), you will come across a milecastle, a fortified gateway built to protect weak points along the wall. After 1.6km (one mile), you reach Sycamore Gap, a dip in the landscape with a sycamore tree growing in the middle.
Continue along the trail and, as you climb the dramatic Highshield Crags, you’ll see the glacial Crag Lough to your left.
3. HOUSESTEAD CRAGS
Cross over a farm road and follow the signpost marked ‘National Trail Housesteads 1½ miles’. Hotbank Farm is on your left; keep to the path uphill. The rocky outcrops here are Hotbank Crags and Cuddy’s Crags.
Follow the wall past Milecastle 37 and go through the woods on Housesteads Crags.
4. KING’S HILL
At the end of the wood, go through the gate, downhill to the ruins of Housesteads Roman Fort. From Housesteads, resume your eastward walk along the wall, over King’s Hill.
5. KING’S WICKET
Where the wall turns north-northeast, turn left through the gate
“THESE ANCIENT AREAS OF PEAT BOGS HARBOUR RARE SPHAGNUM MOSSES”
marked King’s Wicket. This path leads westward, parallel to the wall, and gives you a great view of the escarpment. Looking across Crag Lough, you get the Picts’ view of the wall and the Whin Sill.
Turn left at the road to return to Steel Rigg car park.
Learn more about the history of the area – or refuel with a hot meal – just down the road at The Sill Landscape Discovery Centre in Once Brewed (thesill.org.uk).