Women began to gather at the Once Brewed Youth Hostel from around 3.30pm, with the last arriving from Devon during dinner.

After a cup of tea we went for a short stroll to loosen us up as many had been travelling for several hours.

We had dinner in the Youth Hostel followed by a chat about the walking we were going to do over the following days.

Then we adjourned to the Twice Brewed pub to get acquainted with the local brews before heading off to bed for an early night.

After breakfast we set off up the lane to Steel Rigg to walk east along the Hadrian's Wall path.

We started off with a steep climb up onto Peel Crag and followed the path alongside the wall, with many short but quite steep ascents and descents.

We passed Milecastle 39, known as Castle Nick as it is in a natural nick in the landscape.

We came to Sycamore Gap - a famous landmark where scenes from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was filmed.

We walked above Crag Lough and stopped for a short water break while we watched a pair of swans on the other side of the lough.

The path along the Wall was very up and down, getting our hearts and lungs working well!

We walked through woodland with magnificent fungi and along the top of Hotbank crags.

We paused for a photoshoot of the north gate at milecastle 37.

We passed through more woodland before reaching Housesteads Fort - (Vercovicium - the place of good fighters) where we peeked over the wall at the remains.

We climbed up to King's Wicket where we had lunch before leaving the Wall and dropping down over marshland to follow the boggy path westward.

We had great views back of the dramatic stretch of Hadrian's Wall that we had walked along earlier.

We continued across the marshy land and later crossed the Pennine Way.

Our route took us past Broomlee and Greenlee Loughs to the north and Crag Lough where we looked out for rock climbers on the crags above.

We later had yet another view of Sycamore Gap in the distance and we admired the dramatic landscape upon which the Wall was built.

Finally we reached the road and made our way back down to Once Brewed.

Most women headed straight for the Twice Brewed pub while a couple of us drove into Haltwhistle for some shopping, feeling obliged to call in at Herding Hill farm shop for a cup of tea.

We met back up at the Youth Hostel and after dinner we went to the Twice Brewed and had a lively game of Trivial Pursuits before heading back to bed.

This morning we drove to Birdoswald, site of a Roman fort, museum and Information Centre.

We started off walking beside a short stretch of Hadrian's Wall passing Milecastle 49 before dropping down and crossing the river Irthing to Willowford.

Here we saw the ruins of an old Roman bridge which used to cross the river which has now changed its course.

Our route took us back along the Wall, past Willowford farm and to Turret 48B and then 48A on the outskirts of Gilsland.

Here we left the Wall and headed up through fields, over the railway line and through Throp Farm.

We dropped down to the road, picking some lovely wild raspberries en route. Then we headed through the fields to Upper Denton where we visited the small church.

We crossed the railway line once again - said to be the oldest railway line in the world that is still in use - and along the lane towards the hamlet of Chapelburn.

There we made our way down through the fields back to the river at Lanerton and crossed the wobbly suspension bridge.

We found a relatively dry spot for lunch with buzzards shrieking overhead but out of sight. We picked our way along the twisting woodland path up to Comb Crag, then strode out along the spur with the river below us on both sides, the path flanked by sweet chestnut trees and blaeberries.

There had been a lot of rain and the river was in full spate and was very dark and peaty in colour. The rain had eased off as we came out of the woods into pastureland and made our way up the hill to Gunshole Farm.

Here we rejoined the Hadrian's Wall path, passing Turret 51A before going through a small wood where we found more unusual fungi.

Our route took us back through fields, eventually taking us alongside more remains of the wall and back to Birdoswald.

We shunned the museum in favour of the organic cafe at a nearby farm where we had a cup of tea and a variety of lovely cakes - the favourite being fruit cake served with a slice of Birdoswald cheese made on the farm.

Then it was time to go back to the youth hostel to put our wet gear in the drying room and shower in time for dinner.

In the evening it was back to the Twice Brewed for another riotous game of Trivial Pursuits.

The forecast was a bit better today so we were more optimistic that we might see the sun.

We caught the Hadrian's Wall bus AD122 (named after the date when the wall was built) to Gilsland where we visited the Poltcrossburn milecastle.

Then we turned east to walk back along the wall towards Steel Rigg, where we had started our walk on the first day.

The weather was not as fine as we hoped and for the first few miles we were constantly taking our waterproofs on and off. The Hadrian's Wall path took us through farmland, vegetable gardens and over numerous stiles.

At Thirlwall we left the path for a while, to visit the ruins of Thirlwall Castle built in the fourteenth century entirely from stones taken from the Roman wall.

Legend has it that a gold table was saved from the marauding Scots by a servant who threw it into the well and jumped in after it.

We found neither the gold table, the servant, nor the well!

We returned to the path and made our way to Walltown where we had an early lunch in the rain, fortified by cups of tea from the small cafe there.

We were joined by a cheeky chaffinch, after breadcrumbs and crisps.

We made our way past the pool in the former Walltown quarry and up onto Walltown Crags, made of whinstone.

Our route from here on in was along the Whin Sill with a series of ascents and descents as we crossed the nicks in the land, with remains of the wall on our left.

We had views of moorland, forest and sparsely populated farmland to the north and to the south richer farmland and the fells of the North Pennines in the distance.

We saw the remains of Aesica Roman Fort at Great Chesters before continuing to Cawfields.

We had a welcome break by the quarry pool overlooked by a section of the Whin Sill exposed by quarrying then climbed up onto Cawfield Crags.

We continued up and down the nicks in the landscape, pausing for a group photo at the trig point at 345 metres.

Finally Steel Rigg and Crag Lough, where we started out on our first day, came into view.

As we made our way back down to Once Brewed we calculated that over the last three days we had walked a fifteen mile section of the Hadrian's Wall path.

This evening some women decided to sample the menu at the Twice Brewed and had a really good meal and we all met up there later for drinks and friendly last night banter.

As one of our group had an early train to catch she went off on the bus to visit the Roman Fort at Vindolanda.

The rest of us walked down the lane past Vindolanda, spotting Sycamore Gap in the distance.

By the roadside some of us paused to admire the wild flowers and smell the meadowsweet.

We watched a pair of buzzards circling overhead, then made our way up climbing steeply through the beautiful heather to the top of Barcombe Fell, coming out by Long Stone.

The origins of Long Stone are uncertain.

We had a bird's eye view of Vindolanda and Hadrian's Wall beyond.

We made our way down over moorland to the south, passing though West End Town Farm, below which we paused for a break.

We walked down a country lane, past Westwood Cottages and a riding school, then over farmland following the Chainey Burn back to Vindolanda.

As we were in good time we decided to visit Vindolanda. We had our lunch before going round the museum and the outdoor remains of the Fort.

There is an archaeological dig in progress and we listened to a talk about the dig and the site which included a civilian settlement as well a garrison for the soldiers.

They recently found a very rare Roman calendar which is now away at the museum undergoing preservation treatment.

We walked back to the Youth Hostel and had a final cup of tea together.

One woman was presented with a gold medal in recognition of the style and elegance with which she used her golden walking poles! Then we said our farewells and set off on our journeys home.