Mickledore Hadrian's Wall Walking Tour

Mickledore is a company that advertises as UK walking holiday specialists. When we decided to do their tour of Hadrian's wall, it was this company we went with. For a set price, depending on where you want to start, how many days and nights you want to go, and what extras you want, will book the B&B and move your luggage from place to place while you hike and collect memories on your own (no herded tourgroup). Our tour was the six night and five day hike package, with bagged lunches and luggage transport options. It was from Corbridge to Carlisle.

It is recommended to book at least eight weeks in advance and you get sent these items and a coupon for 15% off many outdoor supply stores in the UK. The center document outlines the basic itinerary, important items of note, and a day by day detailed itinerary and local map to get from the trail to your B&B. It also has a list of useful contact numbers in the back. The local maps were quite handy when getting near our accommodations each night due to its small size.

The Hadrian's Wall Path book, on the left, was an incredible guide for hikers along the trail. It provides an excellent overall history and look at the wall and environment. It also has a detailed breakdown of the trail by sections providing points of note, historical locations, and advice. An excellent reference that we used throughout our hike.

The Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail map is by the same people that maintain the Hadrian's Wall trail itself, link here. It was useful to determine longer distances and the directions to take when going off the trail. It is waterproof which is handy for UK weather in the region.

We were very impressed by how smooth the itinerary went and the quality of B&B's was exemplary. The trail itself was moderate to easy with a few steep points, pictures of course to follow. Having bagged lunches meant we could rest where we wanted and eat when we needed with great scenery for our backdrop. Would book other vacations with this company again.

Also recommend very good hiking footwear, an extra pair of socks, compass, whistle, cell phone (with gps), water, toilet paper, poo bag, hand sanitiser, and snacks. Also a good camera, of course. Allocate an hour minimum at the Roman forts and museums along the route.

In hindsight, we should have taken a day's rest in the middle of the hike (as recommended by Mickledore but we ignored that) as well as just doing from Corbridge to Irthington or stopping a day earlier than that in Gilsland. We are not spring chickens anymore and hiking ~67km over four days was pushing our long-range endurance but had more of an effect on our feet. We ended up taking a bus from Irthington to Carlisle to spend more time in the city and giving our feet a break. The three days from Corbridge to Gilsland was supurb with the last day we hiked from Gilsland to Irthington being mostly low rolling hills with farms and animals. Still nice but not as nice by far as the previous three days.