Hadrian's Wall Walk - Chill on the Sill
This guided walk “Chill on the Sill” was organised by Hadrian’s Wall Heritage as part of their programme “Know your Hadrian’s Wall”. The Chill refers to the fact that this walk should have taken place about 6 to 8 weeks ago but was called off due to the heavy snow. The Sill refers to the Whin Sill dolomite rock formation that much of Hadrian’s Wall is built on and is located on using the defensive crag outcrops.
Guided walking tour of Hadrian's Wall
Our Guide was Richard who used to lecture at Newcastle University. He was excellent, knowing his subject extremely well, and also having a great sense of humour. Our walk did a sort of figure of eight from Once Brewed pub, YHA and Information Centre, up to the Steel Rigg Car Park, following the public footpath east about 300 to 400 yards north of the wall to Hot Bank Farm, going east on Hadrian’s Wall Trail to Cuddy Crags where the Pennine Way crosses the Wall, north to meet the east west footpath again, following this west to Hot Bank Farm, west along Hadrian’s Wall Trail to Steel Rigg and back to Once Brewed Information Centre. This was about 5 to 6 miles.
Chill on the Sill Hadrian's Wall Highlights
Highlights of the walk (and they are almost too numerous to mention) are:
- Identifying the small old quarries in the fields where the farmers got the sandstone for the field walls and houses
- Seeing the swallow holes formed in the limestone rock i.e. the muddy marshy ponds
- The fantastic north elevation of the Whin Sill on which Hadrian’s Wall is built on the top
- Hearing that the Wall may have been lime washed white to stand out as a defensive warning to the Barbarians to the north of the Wall
- Seeing the different colours in the grass i.e. the rich green on the limestone and the poor often rushy grass growing on the sandstone. (Grass prefers limestone to grow on)
- Seeing Crag Lough (the lake) and understanding how it is gradually being reduced in size by the plants on its' northern edge and following the signs in the landscape to see that the lake was much much bigger that it is today and used to have 2 western legs
- Seeing the hill adjacent to Sycamore Gap as it is a Triple * SSSI due to the unique plants and environment on its south slope
- Understanding how the nicks were formed, the predominately east west ground formations, the effect of the Ice Ages and the hundreds of metres of ice that used to be on top of the existing landscape, and the way the molten igneous rock was intruded into the generally level carboniferous rock stratas, the cooling effect of the Whin Sill outcrops and more!
- Lunch in a field by the Wall
- A hardly identifiable Milecastle just by Hot Bank Farm
- The lime kiln, how lime was made and how it changed the poor grasses into good grazing for the sheep and cattle
- The rocks left over by the Romans just by Sycamore Gap
- Crag Lough
- The way sandstone can be chiselled to form building blocks which were used to face the Wall and Buildings
- How the Whin Sill is so hard a rock, you can’t cut it
- The wonderful country side, and views to all directions
There is a book “Ancient Frontiers” that goes with this and gives examples of all the features mentioned so you can go and find them if you want. Richard made the day but you realise that walks off the Wall to the north are very different from walking along the Wall itself. The route we did is a great figure of eight walk. It’s a fantastic walk and would recommend this to everyone even if you don’t want to know about the geology! |
