Tuesday 20 August

After a breakfast around a large table with our fellow guests we finally get outside in to the damp morning and start walking back down to Gilsland at 9.45am. We discover a track detour is in place, so walk back through the village for a short distance, and then re-join the trail at an underpass below the Newcastle-Carlisle railway. Two km further on we cross over the rail line again, this time we walk over the rails at a light controlled pedestrian crossing.

Shortly after we see the walls of Thirlwall Castle. Thirlwall means "hole in the wall" and the entire 14th Century structure was built using stone from The Wall. We take a short deviation as we missed the sign, thanks to a guided group of walkers milling around at the castle entrance. We power up the slope behind the castle towards Carvoran Roman Fort and museum that is naturally sited at the top of the hill. We have to pay £15 to get into the cafe where we buy coffee, and some rolls for lunch later.

We walk around the museum and watch the 3D movie with views of the landscape we will be walking over today. The movie also shows a CG rendering of the full size Roman wall as it once was. Very impressive at up to 6m high, even on top of the crags. Kathy finds a "Roman gold coin" in the gift shop that includes the head of Emperor Hadrian. A nice memento.

Leaving the museum before the walking group, we tackle the most challenging section of the wall. The next 10km east takes us over Walltown Crags, the wall then heads SE, before reverting to its ENE track and climbing up and down over the highest point at Windshield Crags. The trig point at the top is at 345m ASL and gives an unparalleled 360° view of the landscape. Almost worth the climb!

We drop 60 verical metres down the slope as we walk the final stretch to Steel Rigg, the end of the walk for Day 3. Less than 1km south is the Northumberland Landscape Discovery Centre and the "Twice Brewed" pub. We end up at the pub which has its own Brewhouse, but decide to eat at our accommodation. Today we covered 17.7km with total vertical ascent of 551m over 5.25 hours walking.

Kevin from Layside B&B picks us up from the pub car park as Layside is more than 2 miles from the track. Our bags have made it before us to our luxury chalet. It seems that Kevin is a chef so the pot pie followed by Eton Mess and some Sauvignon Blanc was most enjoyable.