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.
A 148 km round trip from Bardon Mill - roughly 2 h 17 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun, Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H, Roman fort and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bean Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
There is not much to see at Bean Burn, and that is rather the point. East of Haltwhistle, in the South Tyne valley a little below the line of Hadrian's Wall, archaeologists have traced the outline of a Roman temporary camp: a rectangle of low banks and ditches, often barely visible except from the air or in raking evening light. Camps like this were thrown up by soldiers on the march or during construction of the Wall, a night's or a season's shelter surrounded by a turf rampart and a ditch, with leather tents pitched inside in neat rows. Northumberland has an unusual concentration of them, and they tell a quieter story than the forts: of thousands of men moving across this landscape, digging in, moving on.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bean Burn 1 Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun.
2. Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun
Hadrian's Wall runs for about seventy-three miles across the north of England, from the Solway Firth in the west to the Tyne in the east, built on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian after his visit to Britain in 122 AD.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H.
3. Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H
Heddon-on-the-Wall announces its pedigree in its name, and just east of the village, on the slope down towards Newcastle, you find the longest surviving stretch of the Wall in the eastern sector. It is a section of broad wall, built to the original specification of about ten Roman feet thick, before the builders further west were told to save time and stone by making it narrower. Standing beside it, with fields falling away towards the Tyne, you get a strong sense of the scale of the project: this curtain once ran unbroken for eighty Roman miles.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 41 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H. Next is Roman fort.
4. Roman fort
At the mouth of the Tyne, on a rise above the river, stands a reconstructed Roman gateway that looks surprisingly new. It belongs to Arbeia, the Roman fort at South Shields, which supplied the soldiers along Hadrian's Wall and was built, strategically, to guard the entrance to the river. Ships unloaded grain and other goods here, and the stores were carried along the Wall's line, so this was the logistical heart of the frontier. Reconstructed buildings, including the gatehouse, a barrack and a commander's house, show how it looked, and the museum holds finds from the site.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H sits at 110 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun.
6. back through Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bean Burn 1 Roman temporary camp closes the day.
Leg by leg
Bean Burn 1 Roman temporary camp to Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun
Bean Burn 1 Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun to Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H
Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun → Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H to Roman fort
Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H → Roman fort is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman fort to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H
Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H to back through Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H → back through Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun to Bean Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
back through Hadrian's Wall & vallum between field boun → Bean Burn 1 Roman temporary camp is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.