Roman marching camps look like nothing, and yet they tell you almost everything about how the legions worked. At the end of each day's march, the soldiers dug a ditch, threw up a rampart of turf and put up their leather tents inside, in a regular plan. The camps at Coesike West, two of them side by side, were built on the moorland north of Hadrian's Wall, and they probably date from the period of campaigns in the north, before or around the time the frontier was fixed. They are only low banks and ditches now, but from the air or in low light the outline is clear.
The land around is typical of Northumberland's upland edge: moorland, rough pasture, scattered sheep and stone walls, with the occasional line of Scots pine against the sky. The ground is often wet, and the grass has the pale colour of winter even in summer. Skylarks sing overhead in spring, and curlews call from the rushes. North of the wall the country opens into a high, empty plateau, the same kind of land that the Roman soldiers must have seen as hostile.
It helps to know that this part of the world has been fought over for two thousand years. After the Romans came raiders from the north, then the Border reivers of the sixteenth century, who stole cattle across the line between England and Scotland. The bastle houses, strong stone farmhouses that can still be found in these valleys, were built so that families could shelter from them.
The roads across this district are quiet and sometimes narrow, with cattle grids and open sections where the wind can be strong. Surfaces vary, and rain and fog can arrive fast. You will see few other vehicles and few places to stop, so the experience is one of space. Spring and early autumn offer the best mix of dry weather and good light.
Haydon Bridge, a village with a few pubs and shops, lies about six kilometres away, but Hexham, thirteen kilometres, has the fuel and supermarkets. Fill up there, and carry water and a waterproof.