WIN(D)SHIELDS CRAGS Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A moderate walk from Steel Rigg car park gently sloping up to a Trig Point, lots of reward for not too much effort or a more strenuous walk of under 2 miles from limited free parking at Caw Gap.
Hadrian’s Wall on the great Whin Sill reaches its highest point at Winshields Crags, and therefore on the entire National Trail, at only 1132 feet (345 metres) above sea level yet the aspect is upland Britain at its best. The imposing inland cliffs formed by the Great Whin Sill, which run in an east-west direction would have been a very important consideration by the Emperor Hadrian in the siting of his great defensive wall.
Leave the car park, cross a minor road and go through a gateway with a field wall to the right and the north ditch beyond. Rise to a hand-gate where you can see the Military Way emerging from the left and a small grassy rectangle adjacent to the field wall, this is an unexcavated medieval sheiling. Directly above the hand gate there is evidence of Milecastle 40 and in the next dip a sign directs a footpath down the dry valley to Windshields Farm, a useful campsite for walkers travelling light along the Wall.
During the ascent of the Military Road the gusting winds appear to have blown the ‘d’ out of the hill-name hence Winshields Crag and Windshields Farm.
On the last step to the summit, field wall begins, with fencing at the broad space alongside the old Ordnance Survey column. From this spot the sense of being above, and yet within, a breathing landscape is profound and the view to the east over Crag Lough is, we think, the best to be had.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va n ebpx snpr pbirerq jvgu fgbarf - qbja gur fybcr sebz gur gevt cbvag va n ynetr ubyybj.