Walking the Wall: Day 10, Wylam to Newcastle

When my husband, four friends and I walked Hadrian's Wall this past June, we did it in ten days. Some people walk the wall in four or five days. I think they miss a lot by going so quickly. There are so many interesting vistas, museums, and ruins to see! Some truly crazy people do the wall in one go. The current record is held by Jarlath McKenna, who ran from Segedunum to Bowness-on-Solway in 12 hours, 31 minutes, and 23 seconds on February 1, 2025. You'd think that going that fast, Jarlath wouldn't have seen anything, but he wrote that the route was lovely and the views in the middle section were stunning. He wore a headlamp for the first four hours, but finished well before sunset, in time to catch the bus back home.

On our last day, we planned to walk from Wylam to Wallsend, a town that has become just one neighborhood within the sprawling metropolis of Newcastle. 

Wylam is off the Hadrian's Wall path. We'd been forced south when the owner of the place we had planned to stay in Heddon-on-the-Wall had cancelled our reservations because she had to to into the hospital.  It is just south and west of Heddon-on-Wall, so catching up with the trail would not have been too difficult. 

However, the night before we were to make this last push, we began to have misgivings about day 10. Here's why: 

1. Our final destination was Segedunum, the fort that guarded the eastern end of the wall (and hence the name of the neighborhood, Wallsend.) Segedunum was not only the place we would stamp our passports for the last time. It had a museum, the ruins of the fort, and a reconstructed bathhouse. We'd been through enough museums to know that we would regret it if we didn't spend more time than budgeted on Segedunum. 

2. Newcastle also has the Hancock Museum, which was not only free (my favorite admission price!) but also highly recommended. We wanted to make sure we had adequate time to study its Roman artifacts. 

3. Arbeia, the Roman fort that guarded the southern bank of the River Tyne, is in Newcastle—and also free!

4. Becauses Newcastle had a major event that day (Sam Fender, a rock star, who grew up in Newcastle, was giving a concert), hotel rooms were are scarce as hen's teeth. We ended up taking rooms on the North Sea coast, east and north of Newcastle and were a little nervous about getting there at a decent time.

5. Although we were now seasoned hikers, and the 16 or so miles would not be impossible, the trail was entirely on cement sidewalk and asphalt and went through some industrialized areas near the river. I'd seen a few posts on social media from hikers who were bothered by young thugs, and other posts that said the areas were perfectly safe for hikers, and I was a little unsettled by the prospect. 

After considering our options, we decided not to hike the last section. Instead, we took the train from Wylam to Newcastle. 

We didn't feel bad about not walking the last day. We had already walked far more than 100 miles, and the wall path between Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend is 84 miles, so we more than made up the distance with side trips and wanderings.

And even with taking the train, we ended up not being able to see everything we had wanted to see. We toured Arbeia the next day, then took the train to Edinburgh, where we would catch and early morning flight the day after.

We ended up logging a good 8 miles, just by walking through Newcastle and the various museums. 

The Hancock Museum was EVERYTHING we'd hoped it would be. The displays followed real people
and their experiences living in Roman Britain, giving life to artifacts that might otherwise have just been pretty objects. I was especially impressed with a display of Roman altars that began showing them how they are now (plain, gray stone) and then used lights to superimpose the colors that were likely to have been on them when they were originally dedicated. This altar to Neptune was so much more vivid when colored. 

Segedunum was a bit of a disappointment. Its museum looks a little tired and the baths, which I'd really hoped to go through, were closed for renovations. It was nice, though, to stand beneath the sign that mirrored the one we had stood under on the morning when we began our walk in Bowness-on-Solway, and to get our passports stamped for the last time. 

The trip from Newcastle to Whitley Bay, where we were spending the night, ended up to be more of an adventure than we'd planned, and I was grateful that we'd allotted more time than we thought we needed. Newcastle's Metro runs to Whitley Bay, and timetable indicated that we could get there in fifteen minutes.  The metro was filled with Sam Fender fans, who were wearing the local team's soccer jerseys because Fender is apparently a big supporter of the team and his concert was being held in the soccer arena. Many of these fans were opening drinking, and raucously drunk, which made us uneasy. Luckily, no fights broke out. However, we were halfway to Whitley Bay when the train stopped and an announcer said that we could go no further. Apparently, a tree had fallen over the tracks (or there had been a car wreck at a crossing, or a power line had gone down. By the evening, we'd all developed different interpretations of the muffled public announcement) and we were all to get off. The conductor swore that the local buses would honor our metro tickets. We wandered about whatever town  we were in, trying to find a bus stop going in the right direction. Finally a local man stopped and asked us if we were lost. He walked us to the right bus stop, but the driver of the next bus insisted that the bus and metro were two different systems and that our metro tickets were no good. Many of the locals walked off, but we were too tired to argue. We paid the bus fare. 

Whitley Bay turned out to be a beautiful place to end our adventure. We dipped our toes into the frigid waters of the north sea and I picked up many bits of green and blue sea glass to help remind me of our great adventure. 

Hiking Hadrian's Wall is something I've wanted to do for over fifty years. I'm glad that I did it. The scenery varied from gentle, sheep filled fields to stunning, hilly vistas. The museums were extraordinary. And everywhere, the people of Cumberland and Northumberland were helpful and kind. I hope to go back someday and hike another of Britain's historic and scenic trails.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former history and English teacher who has written a number of historical and contemporary novels for middle grade and adult readers. She is currently at work on a novel set along Hadrian's Wall during the Roman period.