The shortest stage on paper, and still one of the toughest — the crags continue for much of the day before the terrain begins to ease approaching Gilsland. Short mileage makes this the natural day to build in a detour.

A worthwhile off-trail detour to Vindolanda, the pre-wall fort where the Vindolanda writing tablets were found, plus continued dramatic crag scenery including Cawfields, a former quarry site that cuts dramatically into the wall line itself.

Gilsland is a small village sitting right on the wall line rather than a town — accommodation is limited, and this is one of the two stops (with Once Brewed) worth booking earliest in peak season.

Cawfields was a working whinstone quarry into the 1950s, and the quarrying sliced straight through the wall line itself — the sheer face you see today, with a milecastle platform surviving right at its edge, is industrial damage rather than Roman ruin, one of the clearest examples on the whole trail of the wall's post-Roman working life.