Pennine Way - Haltwhistle to Bardon Mill (★★★★★)

This walk follows the Pennine Way, but with about half of the walk being the same route as Hadrian's Wall. This takes in the very best section of Hadrian's Wall to walk - albeit with it also being the hilliest bit.

What is also interesting about this walk is the contrast between the near empty section along the Pennine Way to the wall, before then spending the rest of the day among the crowds also walking along the wall.

And on this day I'm heading out on an early train, with Haltwhistle as my destination - and upon arrival I head out from the station and across the river, before turning right to join up with the River Tyne Trail, which will take me most of the way across to join the Pennine Way, as it passes west of Haltwhistle.

River Tyne Trail - Haltwhistle to Featherstone

Initially the first task is to get past the A69 via an underpass, and then it is a pleasant walk generally following the river, mostly heading through woodland.

Following the River Tyne Trail

The route involves a certain amount of road walking, but all the roads used are exceptionally quiet (with an additional footpath not on the map available after heading under the A69).

From the underpass the route is entirely on footpaths, until just before Bridge End - where it follows a road - and at Bridge End I make the decision to head over and follow the footpath on the far side. This is an easy route to follow, but probably not one to be used following heavy rain, as it is on a steep bank.

Featherstone Bridge at Bridge End

In fact if the ground is very wet it is probably worth using roads to join up as much as possible through this section, but since it is fairly dry, I follow this path round to the footbridge further along the river.

Footpaths - Featherstone to Kellah

Here I turn right and head across the fields to Kellah, and once at Kellah I swap to the road, and soon meet up with the Pennine Way, as it heads across the road I am following.

Looking back towards Haltwhistle on the way to the Pennine Way

Pennine Way - Kellah to Housesteads

Having found the Pennine Way, the navigation gets a little easier, as I just need to stick with the trail until it heads north from Hadrian's Wall.

Initially this involves heading up, and through a chicken filled yard at Greenriggs (I'm not sure why the path goes through someone's yard when there is so much space available), and where I pass the only fellow hiker I will see until Thirwall Castle.

From here there is a long stretch heading over Hartleyburn Common - and I suggest that unlike me you don't try and follow the indicated route of the path on the map, and instead just stick to the clearest route you can find on the ground. 

By following the map route I went on a long meander through the grass, just to meet up with a clear route that had passed further north of the indicated route.

Eventually though (if you make it through without getting lost), we meet up with a very clear route heading along the western side of the field - and from here it is an easy to follow track, heading on between Thirlwall Common and Blenkinsopp Common.

Had a bit of a rest on the style since no one else was on the trail

Having made it across the commons, the path eventually starts to drop down towards the A69 - but as soon as we get close, the path diverts to the right to run parallel to this road. Before too long, though, it is time to make a left turn, and head down towards the A69 - which I hope (wrongly) I will be crossing via a bridge or underpass. 

This is a road that isn't quite busy enough to necessarily require a crossing, but fast and busy enough for one to be desirable - and as it turns out, you have to scuttle across this particular bit of road.

This means that there is a bit of a pause in proceedings, because I have no intention of heading across without being 100% sure nothing is coming. This takes a bit of time, but eventually I have a completely empty stretch of road in front of me, and so I get across without being hedgehogged on the way.

Given there is already an embankment a bridge seems feasible, no?

Having survived to tell the tale, I head on and then cross the very posh Haltwhistle Golf Course, which is pretty enough to tempt even me into the idea of playing golf - and here the path across the course has been well thought out - with little risk of being finished off by a stray golf ball, having only just survived the A69.

Leaving the golf course

With the golf course now behind us, our next task is to cross a much quieter road, and then to cross the train line as we join up with the Hadrian's Wall Path for the first time.

The train crossing is thankfully very easy, as these days the crossings all tend to have traffic lights, which in combination with a bit of common sense, makes crossing both safe and straight-forward.

And although I've only been on the Hadrian's Wall Path for a few minutes, I have already joined up with a few groups of walkers - and as I head past Thirwall Castle and up the hill, I encounter one of the great dangers you expose yourself to at Hadrian's Wall - a large group of American tourists.

Along Hadrian's Wall these American tourists are far too cheerful and excitable for my liking, and so I am relieved to encounter them just before my planned stop point for a spot of lunch - sat looking out across the countryside, and enjoying a rather tasty ham sandwich (I do a full loaf with about 12 slices of ham).

A pleasant lunch spot

Having stopped for long enough to open up a buffer between myself and the unnecessary levels of noisy joy that lie ahead, I continue on, and pass the car park at Walltown - before heading past the lake and on to the climb, up to the wall above.

Walltown

This is a pretty spot, and this section of path heading under the cliffs features in a lot of films and TV series - where a rider on horsepack will typically head along the white cliffs of Dover, before a few minutes later heading past here, before passing through Malham Cove or some other location that either suggests very poor navigational abilities - or a flaming liberty on the part of the filmmaker.

But having calmed down and made it up onto the top of the ridge (visible in the above photo), this section marks the start of an endless run of hills that stretch from here until it is time for the Pennine Way and Hadrian's Wall to part ways some distance to the east. 

But the rough shape of the landscape, and crags where rock has been cut away, make for a very pretty landscape - and a very enjoyable introduction to Hadrian's Wall.

One of the many crags

From here the path winds on via an unrelenting set of hills, before passing the very modest remains at Aesica Roman Fort (at Great Chesters), which is my usual turn off point if heading to Haltwhistle from Carlisle along Hadrian's Wall - and from here it is an easy route back down into Haltwhistle (following Haltwhistle Burn). And indeed, we are now only about a mile and a half to the north of Haltwhistle

But whilst we could easily call it a day here, instead we press on, reaching another car park - complete with a little hut with facilities, at Burnhead - before heading past the now water filled quarry, and climbing up to Cawfield Crags. 

And the growing popularity of the Hadrian's Wall walk means that the facilities are getting much better along this now very well walked trail, which is nice for those walking along the very under-served Pennine Way.

What once was a quarry is now a pond

Heading along Cawfield Crags, the hills continue in their usual a relentless fashion, before dipping to pass over a very minor road at Caw Gap, and back up to head to the peak of the trail at Winshield Crags.

Hills...

... Hills...

... And more hills

Winshields Crags marks the high point of the wall at 345 meters above sea level (fairly impressive given it starts and ends close to sea level at either end). Being so remote this also offers a section of wall that is well preserved - and in many ways it is remarkable that they even bothered with a wall after all, as it would be some feat to get to the wall here - let alone past it.

A Historic England illustration of the wall along Winshields Crags (in winter I presume)

But, from here it is downhill for now, as we head on and meet up with the car park north of Once Brewed and Twice Brewed (but seemingly never Thrice Brewed).

This is probably the most commonly visited section of the wall, and the section I always send people to if visiting. And here I stop for a rest ahead of the next climb up onto Peel Crags, and then Highshield Crags.

The next crag to climb

With my little break over, I head on, and up the steps - waiting near the top for someone's elderly granddad to head very unsteadily down the steps. 

For those who are a bit unsteady on their feet doing the same walk out from the car park, I would suggest instead to head round the back of the crag - and then there is a footpath that comes back on the right of the above picture.

But as it was, no granddads fell down the cliff, and after a bit of a wait I continue on - and head up to the top, heading past the well preserved Milecastle 39, and on past the site of the now incorrectly named Sycamore Gap (I suppose in a way there is a Sycamore Gap).

Milecastle 39

Gladiator III - "Father to a murdered tree,..."

From here it is on up onto Highshield Crag, with views out to the lake below. 

Crag Lough below

Here we are getting close to the end of our time following the wall, but this is the Pennine Way, and so the hills are by no means over.

Next up, we head down from these crags, then turn left and head up onto Hotbank Crags, which offers a few minor undulations on our way towards Vercovicivm Roman Fort (Housesteads).

Minor undulations

Before reaching the fort, the Pennine Way heads off through a cut in the wall - heading towards Scotland and the dangerous badlands beyond the wall.

Housesteads to Bardon Mill

But here we turn right, while the Pennine Way turns left - cutting down a permissive path to the road below. 

And the farmers here really are lovely in terms of how accommodating they are - both in terms of putting up food supply stalls, making footpaths easy to use, and adding extra permissive routes to help you access the towns below the wall. They don't need to do all this, but they do, and it makes it so much easier to get around.

Having reached the road I briefly follow it before turning onto a very minor road which runs down to the towns below.

A nice quiet road to walk along

From this road you can see the ruins at Vindolanda in the distance, which looks part Roman Fort, part archaeological dig. From this distance you can't see all that much detail, but you can see how the fort would have sat in the landscape very well. I have no picture as I wasn't sure what it was at the time (despite it being obvious on the OS Map where it is).

The location of this fort can seem confusing, but the forts along the wall belong to one of two eras.

Stanegate was an early frontier road that was built along the wall in 77-85 AD - and Vindolanda belongs to this line of forts that mostly sat in the valleys of the Tyne and Irthing. The most notable example of these forts can be found at Corbridge, which actually sits well back from the line of the wall.

Then in 122 AD Hadrian's Wall was built further to the north, with the fort at Great Chesters, and a subsequent fort at Houseteads (slightly further along the wall from where we turned off), belonging to that line of defense.

But from here we head on to Crindledykes Limekilns - where limestone was converted into quicklime, which could then be used either by farms or as a building material.

Crindledykes Limekilns

And from here we reach a T-junction in the road, and cross over to continue on via a footpath, that runs on past an old Roman signal town - and down into West End Town.

Clearing the ridge ready to head down into West End Town

Finally, it is a short walk along very quiet roads, before popping out at Bardon Mill to wait for my train home.

Total Distance: 20.2 miles (13.0 miles on the Pennine Way)

Total Ascent: 2,953 feet (2,218 feet on the Pennine Way)

Enjoyment Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

If you are interested in further walks on Hadrian's Wall the overlapping sections with this walk include a walk from Bowness to Haltwhistle and from Haltwhistle to Hexham - else see the full set of walks on this link. In those writeups I have added more detail around the history of Hadrian's Wall (where applicable).

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 86 OS Landranger map - while there is also a Pennine Way guidebook which includes OS mapping, but won't cover the connecting sections (links redirect to Amazon). The Pennine Way section is in general well way-marked, but the beginning and end phases rely heavily on map navigation.