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.
A 142 km round trip from Brampton - roughly 2 h 14 in the saddle. On the way it passes Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's, Willowford Roman temporary camp, Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet and back through Willowford Roman temporary camp.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 24 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Bewcastle is one of the loneliest places in Cumbria, and it has been for a very long time. Roman soldiers built an outpost fort here, about ten kilometres north of Hadrian's Wall, on a plateau whose shape the walls followed, giving it an unusual six-sided plan. It was a forward base for scouts watching the tribes beyond the frontier, and it was linked to the Wall at Birdoswald by a road. Later, a medieval castle was built into one corner of the old Roman defences, and its broken walls still stand above the beck.
Read the complete Bewcastle Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bewcastle Roman fort is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's.
East of Carlisle, the Eden river bends through a broad red-sandstone valley, and the line of Hadrian's Wall once ran across it. Little of the wall is visible here, because stone was reused for houses and field walls over the centuries, but the course is known, and the Vallum, the great ditch and mounds on the south side, leaves faint marks in the fields. The sector between Baron's Close and the nearby farms runs through gentle pasture, with hedgerows, oak trees and cattle, and the memory of soldiers is carried by the land itself.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Willowford Roman temporary camp.
Rivers move, and the Irthing at Willowford proves it. When the Romans built the Wall here, they carried it across the river on a bridge, and the massive stone abutment of that bridge survives on the east bank, now well away from the water, because the river has shifted west over the centuries. Nearby, the earthwork outline of a Roman temporary camp, one of many marching camps built by units on campaign or on construction duty, lies in the fields. Temporary camps were ramparts of turf and ditches thrown up for a few nights or weeks, and their faint shapes are often best seen from the air or in low winter light.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Willowford Roman temporary camp. Next is Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
This is the stretch of Hadrian's Wall that everyone pictures: the stone curtain running along the crest of the Whin Sill, a hard dolerite ridge that ends in sheer north-facing crags, with lakes like Crag Lough and Greenlee Lough glinting below. Housesteads fort is close by, clinging to the hillside with its barracks, granaries and famous communal latrines, and the Wall dips and climbs over each crag in a way that seems almost reckless as engineering. The Sycamore Gap tree, which stood in a dip in the ridge for generations, was felled in an act of vandalism in 2023, and the loss is still felt locally.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet, about halfway. Next is back through Willowford Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Willowford Roman temporary camp sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's comes up about 118 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bewcastle Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bewcastle Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bewcastle Roman fort closes the day.
Bewcastle Roman fort → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's → Willowford Roman temporary camp is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Willowford Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → back through Willowford Roman temporary camp is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Willowford Roman temporary camp → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Baron's → Bewcastle Roman fort is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.