A Circular Walk Round Carlisle Airport

I had plotted a 7.5 mile route round Carlisle Airport with the first part of the walk following The Roman Wall. As a result of getting lost in a wood we added at least another 1.5 miles to the distance making it a 9 mile walk. There was a biting north wind during the first part of the walk. The airport is extending its runway and also building a new terminal ready for the start of scheduled passenger services commencing in early June. We intend to book tickets on the first flight to Southend so we can have a walk along Southend Pier.

This is the outer ditch  on the section of the Roman Wall we walked. 

Tom well wrapped up against the wind

Tom and I are competing for the wooly hat prize and Tom wins easily

This wee Shetland Pony was very pleased to see us

And so were these sheep as they came running up to meet us 

Our walk took us past Eden Golf Club which looks to be closed for the winter

This looks like the new Carlisle Airport Terminal being built. Scheduled passenger services commence on Monday 4th June so there is a lot of work still to be done before then. The runway is being extended so it can take larger aircraft. I used Carlisle Airport regularly in my days with Atlas Air and flew every month for a while down to London Heathrow but it was not well supported mainly because it was only an early morning flight down and then a return at 6.00pm. It was much easier to use NCL Airport where they had 6 flights a day to LHR.

Today's route. The wood in the middle of the bottom half was where we got lost for a short time

A Visit to Sycamore Gap on The Roman Wall

The forecast for today was rain from 1.00pm in the area we were walking near Haltwhistle so we headed off early and had started our walk by 10.00am.  

The start of our walk from Steel Rigg on The Roman Wall involved a couple of steep climbs

The view from the top was spectacular but it was a dark day so the light was very poor for photos.

This is the start of the steep cliffs on the eastern side of the wall

This is the famous Sycamore Gap

Three Merry Men waiting for Robin Hood to appear 

Two of Robin Hood's gang

More cliffs on the eastern side of the wall 

One of the Loughs next to the Wall

A view of The Lough looking from East to West with the Wall at the top of the cliffs

Sycamore Gap from the other side

Todays route although we reduced the walk by about 3 miles to 5 miles in view of the impending rain. We ended up at The Sill which is a new Visitor Centre and Youth Hostel. We had soup and a sandwhich plus a drink and it came to £36 for the 4 of us which we all thought was a bit expensive as it was nice but not very well presented and had no extras.