Christmas Day

I've already told you I'm a bit of a grinch when it comes to Christmas, but I love the fact that while people are kept indoors by 'family' obligations, I can get out for a walk.

We set off from home to the sound of church bells ringing and headed through the village of Gilsland and turned up towards Birdoswald, a nice circular walk of about 4 miles.

Birdoswald

The road through the village had been well gritted so walking was easy but once we turned onto the B6318 heading up towards the Hill the going wasn't so easy.

We saw the tracks of roe deer in the snow, there are a good number around and they can often be seen early in the morning, heading down to the River Irthing to drink.

One of the bucks had been knocked down, someone had taken the antlers but the carcass was left,

crows, foxes and badgers will probably share what's left.

It was a cold, foggy day and there was very little traffic on the roads so we were able to walk on the tyre tracks with relative ease.

From this road you can look over towards Willowford Farm B&B and follow the line of Hadrian's Wall as it goes from Gilsland to Birdoswald via Willowford Bridge.

Got to Kiln Hill Farm and turned down towards Birdoswald, Eric from Slack House Farm (home of Birdoswald Cheese) snow ploughs this road, a great service and one I much appreciate, it's a steep hill with sharp bends so would be dangerous otherwise.

The buildings of Birdoswald Visitor Centre were just visible though the mist, it's closed now for winter like many of the centres.

Of course Hadrian's Wall itself is 'open' all year, with a lovely stretch of Hadrian's Wall at Birdoswald, easily seen from the road and, one of the most accessible for anyone with a disability.

Hadrian's Wall at Birdoswald, view west

On a clear day you can look east towards Walltown, but that wasn't visible on Christmas Day, the Wall just disappeared into the mists.

Hadrian's wall at Birdoswald

Michael's sheep were on the track down to Harrow Scar, he'd been in with hay for them to feed on, so they weren't the least bit interested in us, as we passed by them.

Down the steep track to Willowford Bridge, looking at the various animal tracks in the snow and  wishing I'd taken my tracks ID book with me, although it was probably a bit too cold to stand around flicking through a book!

The River Irthing is always beautiful, some lovely mature trees down in this dip, I'd like a good hoar frost to coat the trees, but still took lots of photographs of them in the snow.

Willowford Bridge

Willowford Trees

Up the stone steps past the blue tarpaulins, put there to keep the lime mortar repairs to Hadrian's Wall dry.
English Heritage have a policy to use the same amterials that the Roman builders used and spent considerable time getting the exact same 'recipe' for the mortar.
Apparently lime mortar takes longer to set, although leaving the tarps on for months on end seems a bit excessive.
Past Willowford Farm B and B which can truely claim to be right on Hadrian's Wall, along the track and back into Gilsland.
We saw just one other couple in all the time we were out and they were visiting from Japan, brave souls.
Catch you later.

Clotted cream tea's at Slack House Farm

Weather has been better than expected so we took the opportunity to get out for a walk from home.

Headed off towards Willowford Farm as I had something to drop off there, the Hadrian's Wall Path goes past the farm and on up to Birdoswald Fort, making a round trip for us of about four and a half miles.

They have some newborn lambs at Willowford, late in the season but very welcome - we stood for a while watching them.

There are some very good remains of the Roman Bridge by the river, and it's quite interesting to see the display board picture of how the bridge would have looked in Roman times. Considering they had no theodolites or cranes it was an amazing feat.

Speaking of feat, there was a man walking the trail with bare feet. That must have been so uncomfortable, standing in sheep's droppings can't be pleasant and in this area it's unaviodable.

The bridge over the River Irthing has a handrail coming loose, I took a photograph to send to the Path officer but probably, by the time I get around to downloading the picture, the rail will have been repaired.

To the west of Willowford Bridge there's been some tree planting in a newly fenced area, people were ignoring the official path and taking a shortcut up the grassy slope, now they can't and I did wonder if that's why the trees were planted.
'Elf & Safety' and all that!

The Wall at the top of the bank running to Birdoswald Fort is excellent, one of my favourite views is looking east and seeing the crags at Walltown on the skyline.

I spent some time with the barefoot walker looking for the Roman graffitti on the Wall stones, someone had told me the general area it was in and eventually we found it. Rather than being carved into the rock it stands proud (very proud!) and once you spot it you wonder how you could have missed it!

We took the road back to Gilsland but then decided to take a little detour to the tea room at Slack House Organic Farm, home of Birdoswald Cheese.

We had coffee, scone with jam and home produced clotted cream and I have to say it was the best scone I have had in a good long while.

(Don't be put off by the fact it's advertised as a Fairtrade Cafe, honestly, there's not a dusty raisin in sight)

I feel obliged to return and do another taste test ( on your behalf, of course) just to make sure of the quality :)

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