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This is Hadrian's Wall in the north of England, and it was the northern frontier of the Roman Empire for over 300 years.

It was commissioned by Emperor Hadrian in around 122 AD after he came to visit Britannia.

He asked the Roman soldiers to build this coast to coast wall that spanned about 73 Roman miles, and it would have been impressive back in the day.

Spanning ten feet across and about 15ft tall, it had turrets and garrisons and forts all along the way, with soldiers stationed everywhere along it protecting the Roman Empire from the barbarians in the north.

Now, today, less than 10% of this wall remains.

Right now, I'm standing at one of the most intact sections here, up on a hillside.

Many of the rocks were taken to build castles and other buildings.

Others were destroyed and some even buried.

And I'm getting to walk along this path.

It is going to be so beautiful, and I can't wait to share the history and the landscapes with you.

And even though only 10% of this wall remains, I think that's still pretty epic.

I'm Alice Ford and we're back in Northern Norway.

This is the Garden Island, Kauai, Hawaii.

As you guys can see, it is absolutely beautiful down here.

The views are just already stunning, We are on our way to Antarctica.

So right now we're having a traditional tea here.

Wow.

This journey begins in the northern England countryside where I'm walking the remains of Hadrian's Wall.

I start in Newcastle and then head by train to Carlisle, hop in a taxi to Brampton and set out on foot at the remains of the old Roman fortress of bird, of Oswald.

Well, it's a wet and windy start here in Northumberland, which is a kind of typical fall day here in the north of England.

I've just begun the trail and it's already beautiful.

It's a little wet, yes, but there's been rainbows.

There's been bursts of sunshine.

And so far I'm just really enjoying it.

So I'm welcoming all of you here to northern England and Hadrian's Wall.

One thing that's really great about walking Hadrian's Wall is it's not just about the landscape and the scenery.

It's also about the deep history here.

And there are a lot of historical sites and places to stop along the way.

Right now I'm at a place called Birdoswald, and this is an old Roman fortress that dates back to the beginning of the wall.

Well, the winds are definitely with us today.

Now, here at Birdoswald is actually the only spot along this wall where you can see both of the different materials that they used to make the wall from here westward, and the wall was actually made from timber and turf, and from here eastward it was made from stone.

So it's in this very spot where you can see those two different materials meeting like most of the forts along the wall.

And Oswald was guarded by military around the clock, and only people with military business were actually allowed to pass through those gates and go to the north.

For over 300 years.

Birdoswald was one of his 16 forts built as part of the Hadrian's Wall frontier system.

The site has been occupied since, and there's a further 1000 years of history to be discovered too.

And outside Birdoswald, you'll find the longest continuous stretch of Hadrian's Wall still visible today.

It's in moments like this, when I'm alone on the trail, where I stop thinking about the miles under my feet and start thinking about what this land must have been like 2000 years ago.

How brutal it would have been.

Building a wall by hand without the comforts you or I are used to, without warm gloves, jackets and hats that we have in today's time.

And I am reminded that I am eternally grateful for the technology of comfort we have today.

Even though I often choose to take on mentally and physically challenging undertakings like hiking across a country.

Trails like this are really fun because you can hike through all the little villages along the way as well.

And right now I'm walking through Gilsland and you can also stay in the small town.

There's a bed and breakfast right along the trail, and that's one of the other great things about this trail.

You can camp along it if you want, but you can also just stay at little inns and bed and breakfast along the way.

Now, there's not a ton of these to stay at.

So if you are doing this hike in the main season in the summertime, you'll likely need to book pretty far in advance.

And if you're just flying about the seat of your pants, you'll need to bring some camping gear just in case.

Walking the wall means moving through a patchwork of working farmland and quiet villages.

The gates you pass through aren't just part of the trail, they're essential for keeping livestock in place, a reminder that this landscape is still very much lived in.

And along the way, I passed sheep and cows and chickens and the occasional duck too.

First castle along the route is called Thirlwall Castle.

This was built in the 14th century, by a man named Thirlwall, and it was built as a family estate.

They lived here for a long time, eventually basically abandoning this property at some point in their family lineage.

Then it really fell into ruins.

There's not much left.

I'll be at the outer structure here, but now it's protected as one of the historical spots along the trail.

The stones for this castle were taken from Hadrian's Wall itself, making this castle part of a much bigger story.

The wall itself stood for just 300 years, a brief moment in Britain's history before being absorbed back into the landscape.

Well, it's been a beautiful first day on the trail.

Mix of wind and rain and sunshine, lots of sheep and beautiful scenery.

And I've stopped for the night in the small village of Greenhead.

And there's a little hotel here called the Greenhead Hotel.

They also have a hostel that you can stay in if you're looking for, cheap rooms.

But very small village here.

Really not much outside of the hotel I'm staying at, which also does have a bar and restaurant.

All right day two has begun, So far, what's nice about this trail is there's not a ton of mileage on the days.

I thought about really pushing it today.

Unfortunately, the availability of bed and breakfast is quite spread out in some areas.

So today we're saying goodbye to Greenhead and I'll be walking to a small village called Once Brewed.

I believe it's only somewhere between four and six miles, so it should be pretty easy day.

There's a really cool Roman fortress closer to Once Brewed that we're going to check out too.

It's, really a pretty morning today.

Now, two of the things that you can do in Greenhead when you're coming through here are visit the Roman Army museum.

When I got in last night it was closed.

So I'm going to check and see if it's open now.

And you also walk right through Northumberland National Park, which is right across the street from the Roman Army Museum, just up the hill from the hotel that I stayed at.

And if you love history, which you probably do if you're coming to hike this trail, this is definitely a good place to stop.

Now, they are usually closed in the off season, but there's quite a few cars, so let's go see.

This little museum is awesome.

Really gives you a great depiction of how vast the Roman Empire was.

And it gives you a lot more detailed information about Hadrian, who built the wall, as well as a lot of the other rulers of the Roman Empire, and where a lot of the soldiers and people came from that fought in the Roman army.

So, definitely a great stop, to learn about the history here, not only how it affected Britain, but just the larger Roman Empire, too.

Okay, that was super interesting.

So this museum was actually built on the site of an old fort called Magna, which at the time was one of the best training grounds for these really fearsome Roman soldiers.

And I learned a lot of really interesting things in there.

One of the reasons why there is so little of the wall left is because the Romans only ruled here for about 400 years, and when they left and people that lived in this area started building castles and homes, most of the rocks that they took were actually from the wall.

So over the centuries, more and more of it just disappeared, and was turned into other structures all around.

And now a lot of the wall, a lot of the forts were either buried under the ground or just completely taken apart.

So there's very little left to see.

Sometimes the best things are uphill.

And this next section of the wall is said to be some of the most impressive.

Wow, this is so impressive.

It is just absolutely beautiful up here.

And this really gives you an idea of how big this wall was.

And this is just a fraction of it.

And just the thought of the soldiers that would have built this miles and miles across this frontier, pretty impressive.

Now, they say that this was likely one of the most difficult sections of wall to build because of the landscape here that is very uneven and on top of a very steep hillside.

But it also meant that no one was probably attempting to get up to this section of the wall either.

Now, one of the other tactics that the Romans did on either side of the wall was they built these big ditches.

That would also make it more difficult for people to get close to the wall.

One of the first things you notice out here, there aren't many trees, but this landscape has looked like this for thousands of years.

Forests were cleared by early farmers nearly 4000 years before the Romans arrived.

Shaping these open hills.

Today, the UK is considered one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, which makes restoration efforts here even more important.

Along the wall, projects focused on rewilding, tree planting and peatland restoration are working to rebuild biodiversity and bring forest back to this landscape.

So many sheep along this hike, I have read a couple of signs saying that it's shearing season right now, so most of the sheep I've seen have not had their big fluffy white coats, but these guys still do.

They also seem to be a different breed than I've seen in some of the other fields, but nice and big and white and fluffy.

I'm also wearing wool, so I've definitely gotten some some mean mug looks from the sheep I've passed.

You know, fun fact about sheep tags I didn't know is that sheep actually have tails like dogs, but you will rarely see sheep with long tails because most of the time they're cut off when they're young and made like those short little nubs that you're used to seeing on sheep.

The reason for this is that farmers say sheep are pretty dumb, and if they got stuck on a bramble or anything with their long tail, they're usually more likely to just sit there until they die than try to get out.

All right, I just checked into my hotel, the Twice Brewed Inn, in a village called Once Brewed.

I will be asking, what was once brewed here because I don't know.

So a mile down the road from here is, huge, the ruins of a huge Roman fort, supposed to be one of the most spectacular in the area.

Unfortunately, it is 2:45, and it closes at 4:00.

The last bus there left 40 minutes ago.

The next one doesn't go until after they're closed.

I really did want to go and see this, because, it's supposed to be really fascinating.

When I was at the Roman Soldier Museum earlier today, they were talking all about it.

In the video that I watch and also throughout, the museum as well.

So this was kind of the bigger fort along the wall where a lot of people would go.

A lot of the soldiers would go when they had kind of time off.

And it was also, a big village.

So there was also other people living there as well, that supported the soldiers that were shops and restaurants and things to do as well.

Probably a lot of drinking.

So today there's no structures that remain, but the foundations of all the buildings are there, and a lot of it is still buried under the grass.

So I was hoping to go and see that, I don't think I'm going to have the time, because tomorrow we have quite a long hike.

To get to my exit point off the trail.

And, I don't think I'll have time because they don't open until 9:30.

But if you're coming along this, you'll definitely want to make sure you have a little bit of extra time here to be able to go and see that fort.

There also is a bus system that goes along all of Hadrian's Wall on the road.

So if you didn't want to hike or you got tired at some point and you wanted to take a bus to another town and kind of skip a section or just go bus by bus to see portions of the wall and then get back on the bus and go to a different town.

You can definitely do that.

It's really easy, convenient stops in most of the major villages along the route, and you can get on that in Newcastle.

And I believe Carlisle as well, and a lot of the towns in between.

So that's what I'll be taking when I finish the trail tomorrow to get back to the metro station, to get back to Newcastle.

Anyways, there's also a different bus service that goes down to the Roman fortress.

But it is the off season, so, time is not on my side.

That being said, I have, gotten quite cold being on the trail today, so I am going to head over to The Sill, which is a museum right next to this hotel, that also has a cafe and, a pretty cool building too.

Only in England could two neighboring places be called Once Brewed and Twice Brewed.

The story goes that when Lady Mary Trevelyan opened a youth hostel here in 1934, she was taking a jab at the pub next door.

The Twice Brewed Inn where I'm staying by saying that her tea would only be brewed once, and that was quite enough.

Petty, proper, and very British.

Last day on the trail.

Today is a big milage day 12 and a half to 13 miles.

So I'm getting an earlier start today.

It's around 8:30.

And it's very warm today, so I'm pretty sure I'm already overdressed.

I also remembered this morning that I could put my camera on my hip instead of having it dangle on my shoulder.

So, yeah, let's get on the trail.

It is an absolutely beautiful day this morning.

Warm temperatures, pink skies.

Where I'm standing right now.

This is a pretty famous spot.

It's called Sycamore Gap.

For over 100 years, a huge sycamore tree stood here.

I'm going to put a photo of it on the screen because you'll likely recognize it.

It's one of the most photographed trees in the UK, and you might think there's no tree there.

And I'm going to get to that.

It was made famous in the 1991 movie Robin Hood , and has been the backdrop for engagements, the community here and many other movies and television shows over the years.

Unfortunately, in 2023, two men from the UK came and cut this tree down in the middle of the night.

It was a shock across all of England when this happened.

And you might think, oh my gosh, it's only a tree.

But this was, as I said, one of the most photographed trees in the UK.

And if you've noticed the landscapes, there are not a lot of trees here.

So this one standing in this really emblematic area with in this little dip in the mountain, with beautiful views in each direction, really was pretty striking.

And people from all over had memories here that were tied to this tree.

So, it is fenced now because the trunk of this tree is sprouting some new growth.

So there's hope that this tree, regrows eventually and, new generations can come and take pictures under it.

I've talked about the Milecastles, and I'm now standing inside one of them.

This is likely one of the more intact one that I've seen so far along the wall.

This is number 37, and these are located every Roman mile.

And these would have been places with gates on both sides.

And Roman soldiers would have been staffing them 24/7.

These would have been places where if you were coming, to go through, you would have to be channeled into one of these milecastles.

And then the Roman soldiers, it would be up to them whether or not you're allowed to pass.

This is so cool being up here on the wall with this green grass.

This is gorgeous.

Especially because up here in the trees and there's not many of those left in this part of England.

Looking back, I feel like I'm Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

Wow.

This would have been one of the turrets on the wall.

As you can see, there are a lot smaller than the Milecastles because they would have been just maybe 1 or 2 guards, standing in them.

Soon enough, I was leaving the most intact sections of the wall behind beyond here.

As I headed toward Chollerford, the stones gave way to pasture and road walking, but only occasional broken stretches of wall still standing.

Cows scare me more than any other animal.

Well, it looks like I'm leaving the wall behind.

And, from here on out, looks like mostly grass and meadow.

One thing that you can see really well in this spot, however, is this big ditch that they would build in front of the wall.

Now, they did this to basically funnel people towards those milecastles.

If people were trying to cross, they didn't want them trying to access the wall everywhere.

They were trying to channel them to those entry and exit points.

And one of the techniques to do that was to build this big ditch that would make it nearly impossible to pass well without going to one of the gates.

What had once been a powerful frontier was now remembered more in fragments, farmland, and history than as a barrier across the land.

By the early fifth century, Roman rule in Britain was collapsing as the empire weakened and troops were pulled away to deal with mounting crises elsewhere.

The soldiers left the frontier faded, and over time the wall was dismantled, reused and slowly absorbed back into the countryside.

My heritage is English, and the earliest ancestor I can trace on paper came from the Isle of Jersey, emigrating to America just a few years after the Mayflower.

So in some ways, walking here feels like walking through my own history.

Hikes like this, whether across Roman ruins, the English countryside, or the wild landscapes of America, always remind me how small I am in the world and how many explorers and adventurous souls came before me, likely carrying that same sense of curiosity about the people who walked this land before them, and who would one day walk it after.

End of the line here in Chollerford.

My hips are sore and my feet are tired.

It's been an incredible few days on the trail around 30 miles.

Today was a big day.

Took me about six hours to do those 13 miles.

And just a beautiful hike.

I honestly didn't expect to be in such awe along this trail.

I thought it was going to be a lot more boring, to be honest, and it really surprised me in so many good ways.

I was very fortunate with the weather.

It's the last day of October today.

Happy Halloween.

And that usually means rain, a lot of wind.

And I am going to be getting on the bus, just before this storm hits I think.

What's so incredible about Hadrian's Wall is the history.

2000 years of it under my feet.

You know, the Romans built this wall to divide places.

But what happens when you build a wall is that it makes someone curious about what's on the other side.

And there may not be much left of this wall anymore.

But the curiosity about all of the people that walked through time along it around it is ever present.

So I hope you guys enjoyed the video.

As always, I'm Alice Ford.

Never stop exploring.

Almost made it.

Thanks to Saily for sponsoring this episode.

Saily is the smartest way to stay connected wherever you travel with affordable eSIM plans available in over 200 destinations worldwide, Saily makes it effortless to avoid roaming fees and get reliable data the moment you land.