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 54 km to Silloth; allow about 1 h 01 of riding. The stops in between: Swarthy Hill North tower 20b, Burrow Walls Roman fort and back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Silloth sits on a flat spit of land on the Solway Firth, and from the shore you look across the water to the hills of Dumfriesshire, blue in clear weather and smudged away in rain. This was once a Roman frontier too. The line of Hadrian's Wall did not stop at the western end of the stone wall but continued down the Cumbrian coast as a chain of milefortlets and towers, small posts built to watch for raiders crossing by sea or by the tidal flats, and some of their sites lie on this shore. Blitterlees is a marsh and farm on the coast close to Silloth, and traces of those posts are found in the area, mostly as faint bumps and records rather than visible walls.
Read the complete Blitterlees write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Blitterlees is where the day begins. Next is Swarthy Hill North tower 20b.
Along the Cumbrian coast between Silloth and Maryport, the Roman frontier did not end when Hadrian's stone Wall reached Bowness. A chain of milefortlets and towers continued down the shore, watching the Solway for raiders arriving by boat, and Tower 20b near Swarthy Hill is one of them. It was a small stone watchtower, probably manned by a handful of soldiers, and what remains is a low outline in the turf above the beach. You come for the context and the view across the water rather than for the masonry.
Read the complete Swarthy Hill North tower 20b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Swarthy Hill North tower 20b comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Burrow Walls Roman fort.
On the northern edge of Workington, near the mouth of the river Derwent, a fragment of stone wall stands alone in a field, a jagged piece of masonry rising above the grass. It is part of Burrow Walls, a Roman fort that guarded the Cumbrian coast, one of the chain of defences that extended from the western end of Hadrian's Wall down the shore to watch for raiders crossing from Scotland and Ireland. Much of the fort's stone was reused in a medieval building on the site, and what survives today is modest, but it is part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site and has a lonely charm, with views over the sea and the river.
Read the complete Burrow Walls Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 27 km into the recorded legs you reach Burrow Walls Roman fort. Next is back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Swarthy Hill North tower 20b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b, late in the day. Next is Blitterlees.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Blitterlees write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Blitterlees. That is the ride.
Blitterlees → Swarthy Hill North tower 20b is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Swarthy Hill North tower 20b → Burrow Walls Roman fort is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burrow Walls Roman fort → back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b → Blitterlees is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.