Hadrian’s Wall Path Carlisle to Bowness on Solway

Hadrian’s Wall Path Carlisle to Bowness on Solway. Day 5. The final stage. A 13 mile walk following the River Eden, through beautiful countryside and flood plain to our final destination.

In September Lady Lynne and I completed the 84 miles coast to coast Hadrian’s Wall Path walk across Britain.

The path goes from Wallsend in Newcastle upon Tyne to Bowness On Solway. We did it in 5 days.

This is our day by day recap and a selection of short videos of that 5 day walk.

Day 5 Hadrian’s Wall Path Carlisle to Bowness on Solway

Lady Lynne and I have already completed this part of Hadrian’s Wall Path Carlisle to Bowness on Solway, in May 2016 so I’ve tried to make sure that I’ve got you some different pictures this time. And, there’s also a short video if you scroll down to the very bottom of this post.

We previously completed this part as a trial to see if Lady Lynne was up for the challenge of doing the whole 84 miles, to which she was. I’m glad as that also now means she’s up for the 96 miles West Highland Way next year, and she’s persuaded a friend to join us too!

Anyway, we started out, similarly to last time, at 8am, with full daylight only just beginning as we walked past Carlisle Castle on our right in the photograph above.

I have to say, the weather was remarkably the same as the first time we did this walk, even though it wasn’t the same time of year! Based on the soaking we received yesterday it was so nice to end with a dry run!

After Carlisle Castle we are supposed to walk through Bitts Park to the south bank of the River Eden and follow it downstream towards the coast.

However as mentioned previously, due to the terrible floods that Storm Desmond brought to Carlisle, a large part of the start of the path at Bitts park is missing. This still means a longer detour through some of the city to eventually rejoin the path (above).

It’s a real shame we still missed the first part walking through the park and the first stretch of river as the parkland and woodland scenery here are particularly stunning.

Making good time we walked into the small village of Beaumont at about 9.30am.

Remnants of puddles from the previous day’s wetting were everywhere and even though there was no sign of rain Lady Lynne still refused to take off her waterproof trousers or gaiters.

I suppose you could hardly blame her. Those memories of that wet day will probably take a while to fade away!

Still, you can see from these photographs that were were blessed with early on blue skies. Even if it did cloud over and become windier later (which you can hear as evidence in the video at the Solway Firth floodplain part!).

Now, I should say as I mentioned in the last post, Hadrian’s Wall Path Greenhead to Carlisle there’s absolutely no visible sign of Hadrian’s wall left anywhere along this part of the path.

However, the scenery and peace and quiet certainly made up for that.

That tranquility is something that I absolutely love about walking. That peace of mind, that inner peace where all your stress, anxieties and worries are no where to be found.

Walking down REAL English country lanes here you really do experience some of the very best of the British countryside and walking.

Long distance walking is perfect for calorie burning and keeping fit.

I calculated Lynne and I maintained an average speed for most of our days of walking the Hadrian’s Wall path of about 3 miles per hour.

If that speed is right, as well as the statistics that say we would be burning on average 320 calories per hour.

If you multiple that by our average days walking of 7 hours per day we were in fact burning about 2240 calories per day.

Not bad going and no wonder we were hungry when we got to our places of accommodation.

Here at Burgh by Sands we’ve walked about 5.5 miles and have 7.5 miles to go until we reach Bowness on Solway.

I love how these old road signs from the 1950’s still haven’t been replaced by modern ones. And I hope they never do get replaced!

They give the whole area an aura of still being in the past. There’s few cars on these roads anyway so I would hope there is no justification to replace them either!

Its also just as well there aren’t that many cars as we’re frequently walking on the road anyway.

After the hamlet of Dykesfield, the scenery completely changes when we reach the Solway Firth floodplain.

It’s a long flat walk of just over two miles now until we reach the village of Drumburgh.

There’s frequent warning signs about how deep the water can get here on the floodplain when there are exceptionally high tides.

Now, when I said earlier that there’s absolutely no visible signs of Hadrian’s Wall left, I meant no stone walls.

If you look to the left in the photograph above there is a raised bank, (again visible in the video) which originally was the course of the wall.

Now it’s actually the course of an old dismantled railway line which ran from Bowness on Solway.

It was never a particularly well used railway line and closed in the early 1920’s even after only having seen just 50 years of use.

Up until now Lady Lynne had managed to forget the previous day’s blisters having had plenty of compeed applied before leaving for today’s walk.

However, if you check the video at this part you’ll see the beginnings of a little hobbling.

With the end finally in sight though, that was hardly surprising!

At Port Carlisle there’s a good view of the Port Carlisle Quay.

The old docking quay and lock entrance silted up years ago rendering it unusable.

Grain used to be transported to Carlisle along an 11 mile canal which was eventually covered over by the railway line I mentioned above.

The board above gives a lot more useful information and history of Port Carlisle as well as some old photographs from that era.

At Port Carlisle we had our final pictures taken at a signpost by an elderly gentleman who also made the sign and who tells you a little bit about the history of the area as well as his personal travels around the world.

Now, we would have quite happily chatted more to this really interesting chap, but with a pint to be had at the Kings Arms.

Then a bus to catch back to Carlisle (there being only one bus in the afternoon, or a 13 mile walk back to Carlisle) time was limited unfortunately.

There was also no way we were missing our celebratory meal at Carlisle’s best Thai restaurant, the Royal Outpost either. No way!

Hadrian’s Wall Path Carlisle to Bowness on Solway Video

Watch this short Day 5 Hadrian’s Wall Path Carlisle to Bowness on Solway video for more snippets of that part of the trail.

Well folks, If you’ve read through all of these last 5 days of our travels, thank you for staying the course!

I hope that we inspired you to travel a little and get out there and see real life. I write these travel posts not just because I enjoy telling you all about our expeditions, but because I hope to inspire you to switch off your TV sets and live your life full and properly. Before it’s too late.

Onwards and Upwards my friends! And watch up for our full recap of The West Highland Way which we’re currently planning for booked for in May 2018!