Hadrian's Wall rising and falling along the Whin Sill near Haltwhistle, with milecastle 42 perched above a flooded old quarry
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
A flooded old quarry lies beside milecastle 42 at Cawfields, where Hadrian’s Wall rises and dips along the Whin Sill crags for close to three-quarters of a mile. Along one short section, known as Thorny Doors, the Wall survives up to 14 courses of stone, about 3 metres high, one of the tallest standing lengths anywhere along its route.
Soldiers of the Second Legion Augusta built the milecastle in the AD 120s, and a stone honouring the emperor Hadrian once sat above one of its gateways. Excavators here also found a reused tombstone, cut down and perhaps pressed into service as a hearth stone; enough of the carved lettering survives to show that a woman named Pusinna had it made for her husband Dagvalda, who served as a soldier with a unit originally raised near the Danube, in eastern Europe. Quarrying then destroyed a long stretch of the Wall from 1902, until the site was protected in 1960 and what survived was conserved.
Cawfields is free to visit at any time, with just a short, steep climb up to the Wall; Haltwhistle Station is the closest, about 3km south-west. From here you can follow the Pennine Way and Hadrian’s Wall Path either way along the crags, with Walltown Crags a longer walk west, or simply look down at Cawfields Quarry itself, now a still, flooded pool below.
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