Hadrian's Wall Path #6: Eden Bridge to Bowness on Solway 04/09/14

Self at Eden Bridge

As a brief aside from the Wall Path, I feel it my responsibility to report that Scotland is open for business, having last come this close to the Scottish Border back in 2010 and visited Coldstream, a military town that you might expect to have a low hum of activity vibrating around it, only to find it mostly closed with only the pub and the memorial gardens having about half a dozen total people in them. So it's with some joy to report that Gretna positively buzzes with activity, at least the Outlet Village and the tourist trap around the Gretna Green Smithy do, as when you are that close to a venue for reduced cost clothing and entertaining local produce, it demands that you pay a visit, though I'm sure it's only there to tempt English tourists' pounds into the Scottish Economy. It does make you wonder how this sort of thing might work out in the wake of Scottish independence, which side of the border would be good for the cheap goods and which side would be dealing the moneyed tourists? Crossing over also gives you a chance to see how the architecture changes, visualising the differences that make it all feel actually Scottish, demonstrating that a line on the ground can effect building styles just as much as it would accents, but there's surely some cross-pollination to the styles on both side of the Solway Firth, and there are indeed, especially those low square windows closer to the wall angle than the central door, the long, low one-storeyed cottages, and that taste for whitewash with black window frames and details. Anyway, I digress again, the last day on the trail beckons, through a landscape quite dissimilar to that encountered in all my travels, heading for an end that seemed such a long ways away when in Wallsend last May.

Hadrian's Wall Path: Eden Bridge to Bowness on Solway  14.8 miles

Hadrian's Wall Path #5: Banks Turret to Eden Bridge 02/09/14

Self at Banks Turret

The End of Summer has definitely been delayed, judging by the harsh reddening that the left side of my face and neck has suffered, and whilst that should be the primary source of my moans, the reality of my situation has me wondering just how we managed to live in the 20th Century. Sure it wasn't really that different from now, but once you have gotten used to having mobile communications and wi-fi you start to forget what it is like to live without them, and I'm hardly one who is umbilically attached to my mobile device, but things do certainly get a bit more complicated when sending a message when out on the trail becomes a task in itself. Similarly, having no wi-fi means getting an accurate weather forecast requires a trip to the nearest available coffee shop to piggy-back on their free service, and any query about facilities in the locality or the accessibility of sites in Carlisle has you rooting through leaflets and maps in your holiday house. Such are the risks of staying in a location as mobile unfriendly as the Eden Valley, I suppose, and it's a real shame because I got myself a laptop for the purpose of live blogging when away from home and haven't managed to get it done on either of trips away this year, and I'm in the writing form of my life too, hammering out the paragraphs at the clip, when shorn of distractions my writing can proceed at a pace, it seems, so maybe that's a reason to not want wi-fi?

Hadrian's Wall Path #5: Banks Turret to Eden Bridge  14.6 miles

Hadrian's Wall Path #4: Steel Rigg to Banks Turret 31/08/14

Self at Steel Rigg

Five hours on the trail without feeling any need for sunblock last weekend, followed by an August bank holiday Monday that is regarded as having been the coldest and wettest in over 50 years suggest that the End of Summer is upon us and that is the surely the cue for me to go on my late summer jollies. So it's time to get Kirklees out of my system for a week and refocus my attention to the far north once again, time to get the services of my Parental taxi service and head out for seven days staying in Cumwhinton, at the top of the Eden Valley, just shy of Carlisle, to make my attempt on the last three legs of the Hadrian's Wall Path, resuming in the high lands atop the Whin Sill and heading for the Irish Sea coast. So cast away from your mind the environs of Huddersfield and Dewsbury, and the views across to the Colne valley and the Emley Moor transmitter, and return your view to the sights from May time, and say Hello again to the A69 and the Military Road, Hello to Northunbria National park and the escarpments of Dolerite, and Hello once more to tramping through 2,000 years of history, in the footsteps of the Romans, and Britons of all ages.

Hadrian's Wall Path #4: Steel Rigg to Banks Turret  13.1 miles