Following yesterdays entry into Hadrian’s Wall Country, Hadrian’s Cycleway Day 4 enabled us to visit a further three Roman forts as we continued our journey.

It was yet another lovely sunny day as we left our little cottage at Haltwhistle.

  

Our first fort of the day was Vindolanda Roman Fort. It is an impressive place to visit.

  

As well as the archaeological remains there is also a museum containing an impressive range of Roman artefacts and telling the story of both the fort and the Roman influence in the surrounding area.

There is a cafe on the site, and naturally we decided we should test it out! It is situated at the far end of the Vindolanda site down a valley, so it proved a steep little walk to get to it.

Upon leaving Vindolanda Roman fort there is quite a steep climb. This takes you to the highest point of the Hadrian’s Cycleway route which is something like 840ft (256m) above sea level.

Next stop was Housesteads Roman Fort which is run jointly by English Heritage and National Trust. We decided to have lunch first, and then visit the site.

After leaving Housesteads we climbed to the highest point of Hadrian’s Cycleway, some 867 feet up.

Our final visit was to Chester’s Roman Fort and Bath House.

By now it was too late to have a look around Hexham so we just cycled straight through and on to Corbridge where we are staying at Norgate B&B. At least we were back in time to catch the Tour de France highlights!

We decided to eat out at the Corbridge Tandoori Restaurant, a fine little place.

We cycled another 32 miles today.  The heat made this a tough day and the 2000 feet of climbing seem a lot more.  Tomorrow is our final Hadrian’s Cycleway day – a shame, it has all gone by so quickly.

You can view our Hadrian’s Cycleway Day 4 route below:

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