Pick up an Ancient Trails leaflet in the Nook Cafe & Shop or alternatively download a copy here.
The Epiacum side of the South Tyne valley has four ancient routes that run roughly north – south across the landscape.
The original route (shown in red on the image) was to the west of Epiacum and was the original ancient route along the valley. It divided the edges of the cultivated land in the valley and the upland moor landscape. This route has been used for thousands of years, probably from the Bronze Age onwards.
The route can still be followed today as it forms the much walked Pennine Way long distance path. This section past Epiacum is walked by between 12,000 and 16,000 people every year!
When the Romans arrived and built the fort at Epiacum they created a new, more direct route north and south (shown in blue on the image). Called the ‘Maiden Way’ this new route passed the front of the fort and linked Epiacum to the Roman Wall to the north at Magnae (Carvoran) and Kirby Thore (Bravoniacum Roman Fort ) to the south. The Maiden Way Roman road served as a short cut for supplying the central and eastern areas of Hadrians Wall. It also provided a much better route for exporting the supplies of lead and silver from the mines around Epiacum. After the Romans left, this route continued to be used as a drovers road.
In the 1700’s, a third route, the road we use now, the A689, was created as a turnpike road to carry goods along the valley (shown in yellow on the image). Then in the 1850’s a railway line linking Alston to Haltwhistle and the main Newcastle to Carlisle railway line was created – making the fourth route along the valley (shown in purple on the image). In bad winters the turnpike road was sometimes blocked by snow and the upper South Tyne valley became cut off from the outside world. The railway was a more reliable route, but in 1976 the line was closed. By then the old turnpike road, the A689, had been upgraded to an ‘all weather road’ – though interestingly that winter was so bad that the improved all weather road became blocked and again Alston was cut off!!
