The longest single stage on the standard six-day split, opening with the trail's most visually complete standing wall — the stretch running east from Birdoswald towards Harrow's Scar is the longest continuous visible section anywhere on the route — before the landscape flattens into the Eden valley for the approach into Carlisle.

Birdoswald Fort itself, with an optional short detour to Lanercost Priory, before a long, gentler final stretch into Carlisle, a real city rather than a village for the first time since Newcastle.

Carlisle has a full range of accommodation and is on the West Coast Main Line, making it a sensible place to break your trip even if you're not continuing to Bowness-on-Solway the next day.

Unlike Once Brewed or Gilsland, Carlisle has no shortage of beds — but as a working city on the West Coast Main Line it's also the one stop on the route worth booking around train times rather than trail logistics if you're joining or leaving the walk here.