Sunny Rigg is a name that sounds like a farm, and that is more or less what it is, a stretch of rough pasture on the high ground just north of Haltwhistle, in Northumberland, where archaeologists have found the faint outline of a Roman temporary camp. These camps were built by marching armies at the end of each day's journey, with a ditch and a rampart thrown up around the tents to protect them overnight, and they were abandoned the next morning. Most survive only as shallow earthworks or crop marks seen from the air, which is why the places are so evocative: they record a single night of an army's life on the march, two thousand years ago.
The Wall itself runs close by, along the line of the Whin Sill, the hard dark rock that forms the crags of the central sector. It was begun around AD 122 under the emperor Hadrian, and for nearly three centuries it marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. Haltwhistle is a small market town that claims to be the centre of Britain, and the nearest big sights, Vindolanda, Housesteads and the Roman Army Museum at Carvoran, are within a short ride. The Tyne Gap, the valley that carries the road and railway between Newcastle and Carlisle, runs close by.
The riding around is a delight. Narrow lanes climb the ridge from the valley, with views across the moors to the Pennines, and the military road, the B6318, follows the Wall's line for miles with long, straight sections and sudden crests. Sheep stray onto the road, and the surface can be rough after winter. In winter the high ground gets snow, and strong wind can make the exposed ridge uncomfortable.
Haltwhistle has fuel, a supermarket and a few cafés, and Haydon Bridge, to the east, is smaller. The nearest large towns are Brampton and Hexham. The best season is late spring, when the lambs are in the fields and the moors are green, and early autumn, when the heather is purple on the tops.