The Roman army on the march built a camp every night: a rectangle of ditch and rampart, with tents inside, defended by sentries. These temporary camps, often used only once or for a short campaign, left faint traces in the landscape, and many have been found from the air in the north of England. Crooks, near Haltwhistle and Greenhead, in the area where Northumberland meets Cumbria, is one of several temporary camps along the line of Hadrian's Wall, probably used by the soldiers who built the Wall in the second century.
The Wall here crosses the Tipalt Burn and the gap between the Whin Sill crags and the hills to the west, and there are several sites close by worth visiting. Walltown Crags has one of the highest surviving stretches of the Wall, climbing over the crags. The Roman Army Museum, at Carvoran, explains the life of the soldiers, and Thirlwall Castle, a ruined medieval tower built partly with stone from the Wall, stands nearby. Gilsland, a village to the west, has a well-preserved section of Wall and Poltross Burn milecastle.
The riding around Haltwhistle and Greenhead is pleasant, with the A69 providing a fast route east and west, and the B6318 Military Road offering a more scenic alternative along the Wall. The minor roads into the hills are narrow, often single track with passing places, and can be muddy. The views over the moors and the valleys of the South Tyne and Irthing are fine. The weather is changeable, with rain and wind, and the light can be beautiful when the sun breaks through. Watch for sheep, cattle and walkers.
Haltwhistle, seven kilometres away, is a small town with fuel, shops and pubs, and it claims to be the centre of Britain. Brampton, to the west, and Carlisle, twenty-six kilometres away, have more services. The local food includes hearty pub meals and Northumbrian specialities, such as stotties, large flat bread rolls. Walking along the Wall from Walltown Crags gives a sense of the scale of the Roman effort, and the temporary camps are a reminder of the soldiers who built it.