Hadrians Wall Path : Grinsdale to Bowness On Solway
We were up and walking again at 7:15am as we had been wild camping. Pay attention to the Hadrians Wall Path signs here as we nearly missed a couple that were hidden by undergrowth. Passing through Kirkandrews and Beaumont there were nice views over the River Eden.
| The River Eden | Beaumont Church | More Cows |
We moved on through Burgh By Sands past the statue to King Edward I who died nearby and whos body spent some time in the local church before being moved to Westminster Abbey. The road across Burgh Marshes is liable to flooding and stretches for 2 miles, so do check the tide times and heights posted at Dykesfield. At this point it is also adviseable to check the bus timetable for getting back to Carlisle from Bowness as they are not that regular and you can adjust your pace to avoid missing the bus by 5 minutes then having to wait 3 hours for the next one.
| Burgh By Sands | Dykesfield | Signpost At Boustead Hill |
There is a mound that you can walk on, but we dont know if this a Roman artifact, nor do we know if it is possible to walk on it in the even of high water covering the road, but we suspect that it is not worth the risk.
At the Western end of the flood plain was a self service point at Grange Farm, this was the first sign of refreshments since Carlisle and was very welcome before the final push to Bowness. Our feet really hurt and plasters were applied to blisters – looking back, we should have stopped to the East of Carlisle the previous night.
We got a little lost between Drumburgh and Glasson, which was the only time that the signage let us down along the whole route, but we got back on track quite quickly. There was a long straight road from Glasson before we crossed to the coastal side of the road to walk in to Port Carlisle through woodland by the mudflats (the tide was way out).
| Scotland Over The Water | The Solway Firth | My Feet Hurt |
The road sign declaring “Bowness On Solway” was a beautiful thing especially to my feet and we posed for photos. The Hadrians Wall Path has a proper finishing point overlooking the estuary in the form of a nice little shelter with roman style mosaics of birds and some latin words saying “well done” or something to that effect.
We arrived at 1pm and had a celebratory pint in the pub where they have a pet pig and other animals. Following that we still had time to brew up a pot noodle at the finish point then sat basking in the sunshine until the bus turned up. It was quite expensive at £9.50 for 2 singles to Carlisle but it was better than walking back and turned out to be quite a roller coaster ride due to the lumpy road and maniacal bus driver.
| This Is The End | View From The End Hut | The Worlds Fastest Bus |
