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.
318 km from Haydon Bridge to Haydon Bridge, about 4 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2, Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl and back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2. The line favours views over speed.
Look for a faint rectangle in the rough grass north of the Military Road, a few kilometres west of Chollerford, and you will have found Brown Dikes, one of a cluster of Roman temporary camps on the high ground above the North Tyne. Nothing stands here, no walls or gates, only low earthworks that the grazing sheep have softened over nearly two thousand years. But these camps are among the most evocative traces of the Roman army in Britain, because they mark where soldiers actually slept and worked while the frontier was being built and garrisoned.
Read the complete Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2.
Hadrian's Wall begins, or ends, in a suburb of Newcastle, and it is a surprise to find it there. Wallsend, on the north bank of the Tyne, is the site of the fort of Segedunum, the eastern terminus of the wall, now surrounded by terraced houses and a metro station. A museum with a viewing tower overlooks the excavated remains, and visitors can walk along a section of reconstructed wall and see a full-size reconstruction of a Roman bathhouse.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl.
West of Carlisle, Hadrian's Wall heads out across flat farmland toward the Solway Firth, and the closer you get to the estuary, the quieter it becomes. Along this stretch, the wall itself has largely gone, robbed for stone over the centuries, but the vallum, the wide ditch with its mounds that ran behind it, can still be traced in places, and the line passes the sites of Roman forts and the civilian settlements that grew up around them. At Stanwix, now a suburb on the north bank of the Eden, stood the largest fort on the whole wall, home to a cavalry regiment of a thousand men. Further west, at Burgh by Sands, another fort lies beneath the village and its fortified church, built partly with Roman stone.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2, late in the day. Next is Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.
Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 → Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl → back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 → Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.