DAY SIX: Temple of Mithras to Steel Rigg

"Holy Guacamoleee!"

This is the beginning of the most splendid and amazing part of the wall walk. We spent the day surrounded by rugged and wild beautiful vistas that went beyond my imagination. Just feast your eyes on this! 

OH MY! OH MY! It's all I kept thinking all day. Every hill we climbed took us to another astounding sight. But first, Broccolini... yes, I know Brocolitia but I like Broccolini better. 
Tucked into the Vallum is the ruins of the small temple of Mithras. 

At its heyday in the 2nd C, followers of Mithras believed in truth, honor, bravery and discipline,. The god was a believed to have been born from a living rock or tree. After his life of pain and suffering he defeated and slay the "primeval bull" the first animal on earth. The life force of the bull was released for the benefit of humanity - plants and herbs from his body,wine from his blood and all livestock from his semen. The temple was built underground so the chamber represents the night sky.

A light would have shone through the pierced rays of his head.

Phil Leaves an Offering to Mithras

The days are long gone  when tales of enchantment and dark mystery held an unbroken sway over the mind and daily lives of people. They can't  live  in the world of reason and the belief  of a higher and brighter knowledge has narrowed the sphere of their influence. But walking where no one has lived since Roman times, entering shaded woods, seeing water flowing from mossy springs, I can be back in time. 

See the farm in the distance? The farmer lives in that house with his barn and rides around his property, how many acres, in an ATV. His cattle and sheep are spread far and wide. Many people live on the moors in isolation like this with their huge farms.

A Saxon Burial Crypt Abutting the wall

Entering the area of Sewingshield Crags, owned by the National Trust,  I was thinking of the legends and how the haunted landscape inspired stories of King Arthur, faeries and strange mists. 

Legend says that Sewingshield Castle, now demolished, was one of King Arthur's many homes. 

Legend has it, in the cavernous castle vaults below the site of Sewingshield Castle, still hidden beneath the hills, lie King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and his band of warrior knights, sleeping soundly until the British Nation calls on their help. Beside them, on a table, sit a horn, a sheathed sword and a garter. To awaken the great King, it is said one must draw the sword, cut the garter and blow the horn.

A local farmer once sat among the castle ruins knitting, when his ball of wool got away from him and fell down a crack in his rocky resting place. The man just managed to squeeze through and follow his run-away knitting into the legendary chamber below. Everything was arranged as tradition had insisted. He drew the sword and cut the garter, but re-sheathed his weapon and neglected to blow the horn! Arthur awoke but for a moment, to briefly exclaim:

O Woe betide that evil day
On which this witless wight was born,
Who drew the sword, the garter cut,
But never blew the bugle-horn...

Up and down deep crevasses with a deady and dizzying sheer cliff on the other side. 

Milecastle 35

And HOUSESTEADS FORT!

We were told to skip Housesteads and go to Vindolanda a 4 mile round trip off the path, I'm glad we didnt. Its situated on a hillside overlooking far reaching incomparable views to the east over the intense crags we just traversed and across the fields and farmlands to the south. Its the one place you can really get a feel for how a Roman fort looked. The walls run up enough courses to see the building itself minus a roof.

Granary Pillars

Latrines With Sinks

Commandant's House Drain From His Bath

I Was Up THERE! 

And Miles Ago I was THERE! 

I am always turning around to see where I've come from. I love looking at the horizon at the familiar landscape and seeing the distance. I was up there? I did that? I am very proud of us. This is an event of a lifetime, truly. 

Milecastle 37

To be surrounded by history that I would never get to absorb or experience back home, and be a part of their footprint if only in a small way.

Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman were here in Sycamore Gap, in "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves." It's too bad the tree is a better actor than Kevin was in this movie. Alan Rickman's performance both saved and stole the show. All in all thought it was a fun movie.

I Love This Shot Phil Took

Milecastle 39

Cat Stairs - Yikes! & Turret

The day draws to an end just around the corner, a little over 9 miles and the car park at Steel Rigg. In a time warp, we've gone from castle to farm! We've moved on from our medieval digs to a B&B right on the Wall. The wall passes right through the farmyard. Portions of the farm buildings were built from pilfered wall stones. 

There are 120 sheep, some friendly chickens, all organic farming, a tireless sheep dog named Allen, and a tortoise cat. The couple who own it also own the Samson Inn pub in town where we had dinner. They live in a fairy tale. My room is sweet, overlooking the courtyard, and I have a tub! Halleluyah! 

My Room

Goodbye and......

Goodnight!