Allen Banks and Stalwart Gorge

Allen Banks

First dip of the day

Van-Man was philosophical when Lottie demanded her early toilet trip at 6.50.

“Rain’s due at 11.00 increasing to severe at mid day,” he said as I struggled to open my eyes. “It’s good to get up early.”
At the toilets at 7.00 a camper told me that the helicopter and a police dog handler were searching for one of the campers.

Wild Violas

 Apparently she had taken the dog out at 11.00, got disoriented and didn’t come back. Her husband woke up and got the search team out worried for her safety. However it all ended happily as the dog handler found her sitting in the woods with her pooch. That wouldn’t happen with Lottie, she would drag me straight back to the van as she always knows her way in strange places. 

Cawfields Quarry Lake

starting to climb gently

This is the first time we have had our kip interrupted by a police search and hopefully the last. Over breakfast we decided to head for Allen Banks and Stalwart Gorge to have a long walk in case the afternoon was soggy so Lottie would settle down well. We set off at 8.30 and parked at Allen Banks twenty minutes later. The sign informed us that the suspension bridge and some of the lower paths had been swept away but set out on a well maintained path. 

Steeper ups and downs

Lottie wall walking

Great views

We took a narrow path down to the river so Lottie could have a drink and cool off but the lower path soon fizzled out so we returned to the upper one. The path twisted and turned through trees along the bank of the river, sometimes climbing quite high above it and Lottie led the way eagerly. At last we reached the bridge at Plankley Mill where we saw our first walker, a man walking a spaniel.After a quick debate about whether to cross the bridge, in case the path on the far side had been washed away by floods, we decided to risk it. A lady walking a Staffie on a lead soon caught up and overtook us. Soon she disappeared in the trees. The path was good and led us past the site of the suspension bridge high above the water. After that the path lost height and ran through lovely waterside meadows. Back at the road we were able to cross the bridge and returned to our Sally-Van just as the rain should have started. The weather was still sunny.

How far should we go?

Heading back to the lake

We had a hot drink followed by lunch and as the weather was still fine we decided to drive to Steel Rig and walk the highest part of Hadrian’s Wall. We found the car park but it was full, clearly the walk was popular. “We’ll come back another day,” Van-Man decided and drove to Cawfields as the nearest place along the wall.

The north side of the wall

Quarry edge

That car park was large and almost empty. We found the quarry had destroyed part of the wall but it was a charming location. After Lottie had sampled the water and had a quick dip we set off to find Cawfields Milecastle which was also remote and perched high above the valley.
We strolled along the wall gradually climbing for an hour with excellent views over the moors. 

Poltross Burn Milecastle 

Lake and distant wall from Car park

Cawfields Milecastle was close to the start of our walk so we looked around it and carried on. Lottie was off the lead most of the time as the cattle and sheep were grazing far away. 

Our return was swifter and the wind picked up but Lottie still had a cooling dip in the quarry lake.

Lottie looking around

all the rooms are here

Van-Man wanted to walk through a field of cows to photograph the north side of the ridge we had been walking on. The cows looked suspiciously at us and Lottie barked so he left me and our protesting Lurcher and carried on alone along the farmers track while I slowly returned to Sally-Van.

“Where’s the rain?” I teased as He always studied the weather forecast before deciding what to do. Van-Man shrugged.

“It’s too early to turn back. Let’s drive to Poltross Burn Milecastle at Gilsland. It’s not far out of our way back to camp.”

“It’s meant to be the best Milecastle left,” I agreed.

Van-Man found the parking for the Milecastle easily in what was once the railway station yard. It took less than ten minutes to walk to Poltross Burn Milecastle while the clouds built up.

the tallest part of the wall at Poltross Burn

By the time we had looked around and walked back to Sally-Van the rain had started.It rained heavily for the rest of the day until late evening but we were happy to rest up. I just hope it isn’t too stormy tonight as the large Lurcher turns into a panting trembling chicken.