Where Cumbria meets Northumberland in the valley of the river Irthing, the Wall climbs out of a wooded gorge on to open ground, and a Roman road called the Maiden Way ran north from the Wall towards Bewcastle and south towards Kirkby Thore, linking the frontier to the supply routes of the interior.
Roman roads are not glamorous when you find them. A raised strip of gravel across a field, a line of stones in a hedge, or a long straight lane where the surface has not changed for two thousand years: these are what remain, and a good map or a local guide helps you see them. The Maiden Way was a military road, built to move troops and supplies between the forts, and its name is old and uncertain. It was always more important than it looks, because the Wall was never intended to be a barrier alone, but a controlled line, with gates, patrols, and roads behind it.
Close by, the fort of Birdoswald, which the Romans called Banna, stands on a spur above a bend in the Irthing, and from it you can see a long stretch of Wall in good condition and the point where it changes from turf to stone. Gilsland has a quieter claim to fame. In 1797, Walter Scott met his future wife Charlotte there when it was a small spa, and the village still has a sulphur well. To the north, the Bewcastle Cross, an Anglo-Saxon carved stone of the seventh or eighth century, stands in a remote churchyard, and it is among the finest early Christian monuments in Europe.
The road along the Wall here is the B6318, the Military Road, and it dips and climbs through farmland, with long, open straights and some tight kinks. Nearby lanes are narrower and often rough, and in winter the moors can bring snow, ice and fog. The remote feeling is part of the charm, but it does mean services are scarce, so carry water and a map. Fuel is at Brampton, a town of four thousand people, or at Haltwhistle, and both have cafes and bakeries. Spring and early summer bring curlews and lapwings on the fields.