It was supposedly spring when I set out for a walk to an absent monument.
The only seasonal hint was a lark, singing. Otherwise, the cold westerly and spitting rain gave it the flavour of a generic winter’s day.
Emperor Hadrian knew exactly where to begin his wall in 122AD, at the northern edge of his kingdom: along the natural ridge of the Whin Sill. Much of the time, these pointy cliffs running through Northumberland are a superb natural fortification. The implausibly neat and square Roman stone blocks are just the cherry on top.
I’m a fair-weather walker. Most of us who walk for pleasure are – it makes sense to pick and choose our conditions. But I was surprised to find it was so enjoyable to be out in inclement conditions, buffeted by gloriously fresh air.
I turned east to pick up the well-paved Hadrian’s Wall path, and climbed a steep bluff. ‘Jack-jack,’ cried 30 jackdaws circling above the rocks. It looked as if they were playing jackdaw football, circling and challenging each other, racing and rising into the westerly and then folding their wings and sailing to the back of the pack again.
A stroll along Hadrian’s Wall is a lovely ridge walk with expansive views across the countryside, low hills rolling away towards dark blocks of Kielder Forest to the north. Milecastle 39 was a neat square of stone foundations on the south side of the wall. Another brief, steep climb and suddenly, below me, was the Gap.
The path descended straight to a pale stump, all that was left of the Sycamore Gap tree after vandals, for reasons still unknown, took a chainsaw to it one stormy September night in 2023.
Over its 150-plus years growing as the sole tree in this conspicuous, U-shaped gap in the hills, the sycamore accumulated celebrity. Robin Hood, in the form of Kevin Costner, was in a famous scene here in the 1991 Hollywood film. In the Instagram era, the tree’s fame grew. Lovers proposed under its boughs, families picnicked here, and everyone got their photo with the tree. It looks particularly photogenic silhouetted against dark, starry skies.
Its destruction caused an outpouring of grief. Next to the stump, now protected with a modest wooden fence, were small, painted stones. One showed the tree inside a heart. ‘Thanks for the memories,’ wrote Olivia, aged 11.
When I visited, the stump looked wet and forlorn, mottled with dirty cream and orange mould. But sycamore is a notoriously resilient tree, as anyone who has hacked back unwanted saplings in their garden knows. Since then, the stump has sprouted new shoots. If they come back this year, the tree will rapidly shoot up again – bushy, and not quite as photogenic, but defiantly alive.
The missing monument will return, laden with more meaning than ever.
I continued east, to the crump of distant gunfire from a military range. Below me was Crag Lough, a small lake of black water and white swans, which shone like jewels. Further along the ridge, among the rocks where sheep couldn’t reach, grew dozens of trees: ash, holly, hawthorn and more sycamore, offspring of the Sycamore Gap tree.
As I reached Milecastle 38 and headed north to Hotbank Farm, the rain intensified. When I turned back west, facing the weather, the rain stung my face. It felt austerely good. I was soaked because I’d forgotten my waterproof trousers. My jacket had had one of those wash-in waterproof treatments – but they don’t work, do they.
Jumping floods, dodging a stream, I rejoined the lane and reached the Twice Brewed Inn. A sodden stroll is merely a momentary excursion into discomfort. It makes a pub at the finish even more pleasurable. Paradise is a warm bar after a cold, wet walk.
Start/finish at the Twice Brewed Inn, Bardon Mill, Hexham NE47 7AN. Turn north opposite the Sill Visitor Centre to join Hadrian’s Wall Path. Head east, turning north off path at Hotbank, before returning west on field paths to the north of the wall
