DAY TEN: Oldwall to Carlisle

I have sent you... pairs of socks from Sattua, two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants....
Tablet 346 of the Vindolanda Postcards

Salvete!

Hodie est dies Martis Pridie Kalendas Iunias anno domini MMXVI

trans: Hello! Today is the day of Mars, red Ares, Master of Flight and  and Terror, the 31st day of Maius,in the year of our lord, 2016.

Oldwall, Walton, Walltown, Wallsend, Wall, Wallhouses.... no more Wall! Oldwall to Carlisle was again 7.96 miles. We seem to have a routine of 8 miles. 

At some time we were walking ON the Wall, but mostly we followed the course of it as it disappeared under turf and pavement. The ditch and Vallum popped up any time like an old friend. Looking behind is the same as looking ahead. Much of the walking was on or beside the road now, though the road was Roman - Stanegate, their coast to coast super main highway - you wouldn't know, but you can use imagination.

The path was flat, along the winding River Eden, through fields of wildflowers, through farms and then into Rickerby Park ( owned by a definitely eccentric man named George Head Head) to the final push to the Sands Leisure Center in Carlisle, our second to the last stamping point.

Lugovalium Monument

Beginning life as Roman Lugovalium, Carlisle is not the huge, intimidating, gritty place Newcastle is. I'm trying to be nice here! Though it seems to have turned its back on its Roman past, it has a couple well designed small monuments to the Wall and the castle was built from Wall stone. 

St Cuthbert visited the city in AD685 and 2000 years ago Carlisle was THE headquarters for the entire Wall and the home of 2 forts. 

I like Carlisle. It's clean, people friendly, bright, happy. It has all the regular stores laid out in a pedestrian only area. We did some shopping, we didn't go in to the Cathedral, the diocese of the Bishop of Carlisle, but we had an excellent lunch in the Priory Kitchen in a vaulted crypt. I think Lanercost would have looked a lot like this before it was ruined. 

Carlisle Castle is a little confusing. I don't like the red sandstone, it's a mish-mash of time periods and reconstructions, but wandering around the stairways, especially in the 16C Keep was amazing. Makes you think.

Henry VIII's Daughter! 

For 500 years, until the English and Scottish crowns were united in 1603, Carlisle Castle was the principal fortress of England’s  border with Scotland. Scotland is only a 20 minute drive away. The castle has endured more sieges than any other place in the British Isles. It has been continuously occupied since its foundation by William II in 1092. 
 In AD 72 a large Roman fort, built of turf and timber, was established on the site of the later castle. It later provided support for garrisons on the Wall and acted as a staging post for troops invading Scotland. The fort became the nucleus of Luguvalium (Carlisle), which by the mid-2nd century was one of the most important military bases in Roman Britain.
FACTOIDS: 
Henry I  visited Carlisle in 1122
Henry II  visited  in 1186
 In the early 13th century King John may have done some additions.
In 1296 Edward I (the sick one at Lanercost) made Carlisle his headquarters for three months in the early stages of his war against the Scots.

Mary, Queen of Scots was housed here as prisoner for some weeks .

The castle was also used as a prison for border Reivers. 

Carved Doodles

But the claim to fame was during the second Jacobite rising of 1745–6, which attempted to restore the exiled Stuarts to the throne. Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) led his army south, reaching Carlisle in 1745. The city and castle surrendered five days later. The Jacobite army marched south, but finding little support turned around and returned to Carlisle. It then retreated over the border into Scotland, leaving a garrison of 400 in Carlisle Castle to hold off the English pursuit led by the Duke of Cumberland.The castle then endured its tenth and final siege, battered by the artillery of the duke’s army, and was taken . Several soldiers of the Jacobite garrison were imprisoned in the castle, and 31 were executed in public, first being hung, then their intestines cut out and set on fire so they could watch them burn as they died. Nice, huh?  

These prisoners carved doodles on the walls. Some are heraldic symbols of loyalty, some tell stories. They're an artistic expression at a time when literacy wasnt the norm. 

The Castle is now a garrison for the Border Regiment. 

And so we end the next to the last stage of this amazing trek. But not the end of the journey!