By Matthew McCusker
Matthew McCusker, SPUC’s General Secretary, has completed his sponsored walk along the 84-mile Hadrian’s Wall national trail. He was walking to raise awareness of the pro-abortion propaganda being used to promote abortion in our schools. The abortion industry has ideological and financial interests in ensuring more of our young people have abortions. SPUC is fighting hard against this propaganda.
Matthew has shared the following report of his walk:
First of all, I want to thank everybody who has so generously supported my walk - we have raised more than £50,000 so far! This is truly extraordinary generosity and every penny will be used to protect innocent human lives.
Day 1 & 2 - 15 miles & 15 miles
My walk began at the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall, at the fortress of Segedunum, and the first morning took me through the suburbs of Newcastle. Little evidence of the wall remains here, other than the straight Roman road. In the afternoon the trail heads west out of the city, along the river Tyne, before turning north to the village of Heddon-on-the-Wall. It is here that you get the first glimpse of the wall since Segedunum.
Day 2 followed the course of the wall through Northumberland’s moorland. While the stone wall itself has mostly been robbed away on this stretch - or is buried beneath the "Military Road" built by General Wade during the Jacobite rising of 1745 - the vallum, the defensive ditch which accompanied it, is very clear for most of the day.
Days 3 & 4 - 21 miles & 19 miles
The terrain on these days was strikingly different. This is classic Hadrian’s wall territory. The path follows the highest points of the landscape and the wall is very often visible. On day 3 I ascended the highest point of the trail, at Winshield Crag, and passed the best-preserved fort on the wall, Housesteads. Day 4 ends at one of the most important sites - Carlisle - the ancient Roman fortress town of Luguvalium from which the whole wall was governed and administered.
Day 5 - 14 miles
The terrain changes again at the beginning of day 5 and the path follows a much flatter course down to the sea at Bowness-on-Solway. Very little evidence of the wall appears on this stretch, and even the vallum didn’t put in much of an appearance.
I very much enjoyed the walk but it was tough going in places. Days 1 and 2 were generally good walking weather - except for a bit of rain. The rest of the walk was much more difficult - with very hot weather and a lot of exposure to the sun. I was very glad to stumble into Bowness-on-Solway in time for the last bus back to Carlisle for a good night’s rest!
Throughout the walk I was aware of how many people were supporting my efforts with their generous donations. Thank you very much indeed: together we will defeat abortion!
