Hadrians Wall Country 4: Twice Brewed

We boarded the AD 122 bus at Walltown Crags for the last jaunt of the day, to the oddly-named Once Brewed visitors centre. An infomation point for the Northumberland National Park, it is also home to a YHA hostel. We would have stayed here in one of their private rooms, except for the same price we found a room a short walk down at the road at the Twice Brewed Inn (anyone else detecting a theme here?).

We plumped for the inn because of the pub downstairs and the promise of a hot breakfast in the morning. It may look a bit swank from the website, but it's a no nonsense country inn with basic accommodation, water pumped from an on-site well and showers down the hall.

Check out the view from the room...


What you don't see in the photo is the road that runs directly under the window, but as I expected in this remote part of the country there was no traffic after dark.

The inn does its best to save water and electricity, but I was not impressed by the motion detector lights in the WC. Don't sit on the loo too long or you're left in the dark... when the only thing moving is not in a position to set off any motion detectors, trust me.

First stop was the bar, which had five handpumped beers, a choice of ciders and a good selection of bottled ale. I'm mystified why it is not in the Bud Gear Hide... er, Good Bear Tide... GOOD BEER GUIDE, even.

Next, time for our first hot meal of the day. I started with a chunky tomato soup, while Christian had a bit of haggis. He followed with a whole trout which came out face and all, while I had a steak pie and new potatoes. Afterwards I still managed a sticky toffee pudding with a dollop of ice cream and Christian had rhubarb crumble with custard. The portions were large, the prices reasonable and, although the plates lacked a restaurant-style presentation, the food was delicious. Breakfast the next morning was in a similar style: plenty of choice, with big servings of fresh food.

The inn sits a short walk away from the most famous stretch of the wall, including Crag Lough and Sycamore Gap, so we decided to take a peek after our big meal.

The hills rise and fall like waves, with Hadrians Wall surfing across the top.


Sycamore Gap is where you can see the Robin Hood tree, so-called because of the scenes filmed here in Kevin Costner's movie.


Instead of following the crest of the hills back (and risking a tumble down the cliffside), we headed downhill to the lower slopes which were flat but boggy.

By now the sun had set entirely and it was probably a mile back to the inn, its twinkling lights on the horizon the only sign of civilisation now that the Roman wall had faded into the black night.