The Four-Day Crossing

Arrive at your own pace and settle in near Wallsend or Newcastle. If the afternoon allows, Segedunum Roman Fort at Wallsend is where the wall began, and its viewing tower gives you the layout of a fort from above before you walk a step.

Otherwise, eat well and sleep early. Tomorrow is 21 miles, and you will want every bit of rest you can get tonight.

Start at Segedunum and follow the Tyne west on surfaced paths through Newcastle, under the bridges and along the quayside. The river does the navigating. Beyond Newburn the path climbs gently away from the water into farmland, and at Heddon-on-the-Wall you meet the first substantial stretch of standing wall.

On a shorter itinerary Heddon would be the end of the day. Here it is roughly two thirds of the way. The path carries on beside the line of the Military Road, with the ditch and the vallum marking the wall's course across the fields, to East Wallhouses near the Robin Hood Inn. It is easy ground, but 21 miles on tarmac and grass is a genuine test of feet.

The morning is steady green walking past Portgate, where Dere Street crossed the wall, and down into the North Tyne valley at Chollerford, with Chesters Roman Fort and its bathhouse beside the river. Take a short break here, because the harder half is still ahead. The path climbs past Black Carts turret onto the moor.

At Sewingshields the Whin Sill begins: short, sharp climbs and drops along dolerite crags with the wall on the edge beside you. Housesteads sits right on the path, then Milecastle 37, the cliffs above Crag Lough, and the gap where the Sycamore Gap tree stood. You reach Once Brewed with 21 miles and the biggest climbs of the trail behind you.

The crags continue from the start: over Winshield, at 345 m the highest point on the trail, past Cawfields' wall above the quarry lake, and along Walltown's crag-top masonry. You drop past Thirlwall Castle to Gilsland, where the Poltross Burn milecastle is worth a short stop, then follow the longest continuous stretch of standing wall to Birdoswald fort above the Irthing gorge.

After Birdoswald the crags are over and the day turns into a long march through Cumbrian pasture and quiet lanes, past the turning for Lanercost Priory, built from wall stone, and on through Walton to the small village of Newtown. By the time you arrive you have done the last of the climbing on the whole trail.

Field paths lead west past Crosby-on-Eden, where the pub makes a good early coffee stop, and the path follows the River Eden into Carlisle through Rickerby Park. The castle, cathedral and Tullie House are all close to the route, though on a 23-mile day most walkers settle for lunch and a look from the outside. Then the Eden leads you out onto the Solway Plain, flat and wide-skied, and different from everything before it.

Through Burgh-by-Sands, where Edward I died waiting to invade Scotland, the path runs along the estuary road across open saltmarsh with Scotland across the firth. The trail ends at the pavilion on the shore at Bowness-on-Solway, the site of the Roman fort of Maia. You sleep at Bowness tonight, so there is no last bus to catch.

After breakfast, head for Carlisle and the train home, with rail connections in every direction. The bus from Bowness is infrequent, so most walkers take a taxi; we can pre-book one to Carlisle station for you, at your cost.