Walk 135

Bowness to Eastriggs 25.5miles

Burgh By Sands Knight

The forecast today was for wet and windy weather so the thought of 7hrs walking filled me with dread. I had my breakfast and the rain was falling steadily outside so afterwards I packed slowly and my slackness worked! the rain stopped just as I walked out of the door!!! I dashed down Bowness High St and stopped at the start/finish point of the Hadrians Wall Walk, I thought I had better make the effort as I would be walking a section today all the way to Carlisle. Unfortunately there is no wall left at this end, but there is a nicely marked trail that follows the route of where the wall used to be.

Welcome to Scotland

Hadrians Wall Start/Finish

Most of today's walk was along roads and extremely flat, so I trudged on through the villages of Port Carlisle and Burgh By Sands eventually arriving in Carlisle. At Stainton (Nr Carlisle) there is a new road that takes you across the River Eden, this means that you no longer have to walk all the way into Carlisle and back out again. This road eventually meets up with B road that takes you over the border into Scotland at Gretna Green. I stopped at the petrol station in Gretna for a sandwich and to my surprise everyone sounded like a Geordie! I had expected as soon as I crossed the border to Scotland that I would hear nothing but Scottish accents but no, how wrong could I be? The final hour of the day was a complete nightmare as the rain they promised 6 hours ago finally turned up complete with gale force winds straight in my face, I arrived in Eastriggs as wet as if I had been out in it all day....but at least I hadn't!!