CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Silloth it runs 157 km to Silloth; allow about 2 h 41 of riding. It goes by way of Biglands House, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Hadrian's Wall did not stop at the sea. West of Bowness, the Romans continued their frontier along the Cumbrian coast with a chain of milefortlets and watchtowers, guarding against raiders who might sail across the Solway Firth. Bank Mill tower 15a is one of those coastal towers, set on the low ground near Silloth, and its remains are slight, though the logic is clear: from here, a sentry could see the whole estuary, and a signal could pass quickly along the line. The coast defences belong to the same UNESCO frontier listing as the wall itself.
Read the complete Bank Mill tower 15a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bank Mill tower 15a is where the day begins. Next is Biglands House.
Out on the Cumbrian shore of the Solway Firth, at the far western end of Hadrian's frontier, Biglands is a farmhouse name attached to the site of a small Roman milefortlet, one of the posts that carried the Wall's chain of defences down the coast once the stone curtain itself had stopped at Bowness. There is very little to see above ground; the fortlet was excavated and then returned to the grass. What you come for is the setting and the sense of standing at the edge of an empire, looking across a few kilometres of mud and water at Scotland.
Read the complete Biglands House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Biglands House comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
The western end of Hadrian's Wall runs right through Carlisle, and the stretch counted as wall mile 66 lies on the edge of the city, close to where the wall crossed the River Eden. The Roman town of Luguvalium grew up here, and the fort at Stanwix, across the river, housed a cavalry regiment and was the largest on the wall. Very little of the stone wall survives in the city, much of it having been robbed for buildings, but the line of the wall and vallum can be traced in places, and the Tullie House museum tells the story of Roman Carlisle with excellent displays.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr.
North-east of Brampton, the Wall climbs out of the Irthing valley and runs along a ridge past the hamlet of Banks, and here you can see something many visitors miss: not only the Wall itself, but the vallum, the great earthwork ditch with banks on either side that the Romans dug just south of it. The vallum marked a military zone, a controlled strip where civilians could not wander freely, and seeing its long straight line beside the stone curtain makes the frontier feel less like a wall and more like a whole system of control.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Biglands House.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Biglands House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Biglands House comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bank Mill tower 15a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bank Mill tower 15a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bank Mill tower 15a closes the day.
Bank Mill tower 15a → Biglands House is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Biglands House → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → back through Biglands House is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Biglands House → Bank Mill tower 15a is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.