A-Walking: Brocolitia to Housesteads via Wark

Our three walks on Sunday, 26th August, each took place in the Hadrian's Wall area of Northumberland. All of the walks started at Brocolitia and finished at Housesteads.
 
The A-Walk covered a distance of 16.3 miles and was led by Phil Barker (pictured below). There were just four members in the group.
After visiting the Temple of Mithras at Brocolitia, the group headed north along a very muddy and often water-logged path to reach the road (Ward Lane) at {NY 844 751}. From here we followed a good track to reach Low Moralee Farm {NY 848 761}.
 
In order to get to our lunch-stop destination at Wark, we needed to cross Warks Burn using the ford at {NY 853 765}. Unfortunately, because of the recent heavy rainfall, the water-level at the ford was very high and we were unable to cross the river at this point - despite the previous effort that we (Jane and Phil) had put in to building some stepping stones on a recent earlier visit (see the 'flash back' photos located here).
 
Fortunately for today's group, we were able to 'shimmy' across a fallen-down tree that conveniently straddled the river at a point just west of where we had intended to cross at the ford. After successfully negotiating the swollen river, we had a pleasant lunch-stop in Wark - sitting on the bank of the River North Tyne {NY 861 769}.
 
After our lunch-stop we made our way in a westerly direction - passing through Woodley Shield, Ramshaws Mill and Longlee - to reach the Pennine Way at {NY 811 767} on Longlee Rigg. Interestingly, as we went west across the Rigg, we sighted a heron near Fawlee Sike.
 
Having reached the Pennine Way, we followed its muddy and water-logged route in a southerly direction to reach Ladyhill and Cragend - where we had some good views of Greenlee Lough. We then made our way towards Housestead Crags {NY 785 686} where we were able to walk along a section of Hadrian's Wall. This gave us some excellent views of Ridley Common and Broomlee Lough on our left.
 
Leaving the Wall, we made our way to the visitors' centre at Housesteads. Before boarding our coach to go home, we had a little time to partake of some light refreshments - which were very welcome after our arduous trek along the Pennine Way.
 
Some of the photos that we took during today's walking expedition can be seen by clicking on the pink button below:

Credits:
Many thanks to Jane Thompson and Phil Barker for taking the photographs.
 

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