Tymon Burghy

The final day; the final leg of the journey; the shortest and most rewarding of the days. I had walked 86 miles so far, I only had 16 left. 16 miles left in the kind of weather I expected from England, but with a great couple of guys to finish it with. 

Morning came and I got ready to leave, I packed my bag and got ready to head out. I left one bag with the hostess of the hotel I was staying at, I didn’t want the bag transport company to take my bag to the hotel I was supposed to end at because I had changed my schedule. The hostess agreed to hold onto it until I returned from the last part of the day. I took off on the trail, following it around the river in Carlisle. I arrived at the Sands Centre near the centre of Carlise where I met Ash and Stephen again. We took off from there and started the walk to Bowness-on-Solway. The weather was different than it had been all week. A layer of lite fog had moved in and the air was a bit misty. 

About five miles into the journey, we somehow missed a trail marker and took a wrong turn, following a random road. We followed the road for a good bit before one of us realised that we hadn’t seen a trail marker in a while. We pulled out a map and deduced that we were on the wrong road. A farmer then was coming down the street on a tractor, he stopped and asked us if we were lost. We answered that we had taken a wrong turn and he said “People miss that trail marker all the time, it’s hard to see coming from that side of the trail.” We retraced our steps and sure enough, the trail marker was hiding behind a bush. We got back on the trail and kept going.

We made our way along the trail, finding a town that I took a liking to, Burgh by Sands. I liked the name “Burghy by Sands” better, so on the street signs, I would hold up the sign language letter “Y” at the end of it to make it Burghy. Along the way, I also found the Burgh House and had to create the “Burghy House”.

After passing Burgh by Sands, we continued along what turned into a cycle route towards the end. The wall had completely disappeared by this point, the trail followed what archaeologists and historians had found as parts of the wall, or blocks in old houses that matched the stones from the wall. As we kept walking, the path arrows pointed away from the road and we took a loop around a village called Glasson. Once through, the spillway came into view as we got closer to Bowness-on-Solway. We walked along an embankment across a road from where the sea came in to invade Cumbria. The fog and mist hung on tight as I had to don my raincoat for the first time for the entire trip. We continued on at a steady pace, sometimes Stephen would put some music on a Bluetooth speaker he had brought to encourage us in the last couple of miles as we approached Bowness-on-Solway. The signs along the road helped encourage us letting us know that we were getting closer.

The tide was out as we arrived in the tiny village of Bowness-on-Salway. We followed the inverted acorn blazes and came to a small hut decorated with mosaics and Latin words. “AVE TERMINVM CALLIS HADRIANI AVGVSTI PERVINSTI” which means “The End of Hadrian’s Wall Path”. The journey was coming to an end, the wall had been walked. I had almost completed what I set out to do. I needed to touch the Irish Sea coming in at Bowness-on-Solway. Ash and Stephen weren’t interested in making the trek to the beach to touch the water, so they went ahead to a local pub to get seats and rest their feet. I made my way down a set of steps leading to the beach and walked across the sand. The tide was out in full, the sand was soaked but the sea itself was much further from where I was. I walked across and found a medium-sized pool of water that the tide had left behind. I bent down and dipped my fingers in the pool. 

Coast to coast, it was finished. The sunburn, the blisters, the mild dehydration, it was all worth it. In total my five days of walking ended up totalling 102 miles. The people I had met and the time that I had to just enjoy nature and history was absolutely amazing. 

I called my family as I walked back up the beach to share my excitement and achievement. After I set off for The King’s Arms to enjoy a pint with my new friends and relax from the journey. We called a taxi and went back to Carlisle. Ash invited me to ride back to Oxford with them in the morning to save money and time from the train. I accepted his offer and cancelled my train ticket. Then they invited me to dinner in the evening at a restaurant in Carlise as a way to round out the trip. I also gladly accepted that invitation and joined them that evening. I grabbed my bag from the hostess who had been holding it for me, and I checked into my other B&B and got refreshed before heading out to explore Carlisle a little bit more. I made a quick stop to Carlisle Castle before I was supposed to meet Ash, Stephen, and their friend with the injured foot. I had dinner with them and turned in for the night. In the morning I repacked and met the crew at their car and we headed to Oxford. A car ride with a few friends playing music, laughing, and swapping stories and jokes is a great way to end a journey like the one I had been on. They dropped me off in Oxford after a 5hr drive and I made my way home. 102/102