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 164 km round trip from Maryport - roughly 2 h 45 in the saddle. On the way it passes Skinburness, Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End, The vallum between the field boundary sout and back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End. The line favours views over speed.
Most people think Hadrian's Wall stops at the Solway, but the Roman frontier did not simply end at the water's edge. Beyond Bowness a chain of milefortlets and towers ran on down the Cumbrian coast, watching the sea and the hills of Scotland across the firth, and Brownrigg North, tower 21b in the archaeologists' numbering, was one of them. There is little to see on the ground now, often just a gentle swelling in a field, but stand here and look west and you understand why it was put there: the Solway opens out, and on a clear day the Galloway hills and the Isle of Man line the horizon.
Read the complete Brownrigg North tower 21b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Brownrigg North tower 21b is where the day begins. Next is Skinburness.
Skinburness is a scatter of houses at the tip of a shingle spit on the Solway coast of Cumbria, just north of Silloth, looking across the wide, shimmering estuary to the hills of Scotland. When the tide goes out, the Solway empties into vast expanses of sand and mud, with channels winding through them, and the light changes constantly as clouds race overhead. On clear evenings, the sunsets over the Scottish hills, with the dark bulk of Criffel opposite, are spectacular.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Skinburness comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End.
Out on the Solway plain the land flattens, the sky gets enormous, and the sea is never far off even when you cannot see it. The stretch of the vallum near West End lies between Carlisle and the village of Burgh by Sands, on the last run of Hadrian's Wall towards its western end at Bowness-on-Solway. Here the Roman frontier ran along the edge of the marshes and the estuary, where the tide sweeps in across vast sands and salt marsh. Nothing of the Wall stands above ground in this section, but the line is clear on the map, and the country around has a strange, quiet beauty.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End. Next is The vallum between the field boundary sout.
Not every stretch of Hadrian's Wall is the dramatic crag-top masonry of the postcards, and this is one of the quieter parts: a section of the vallum, the great ditch-and-mound earthwork the Romans dug behind the wall, running across farmland near Brampton in Cumbria. The stone wall here was largely robbed out long ago for farms and churches, so what survives is often a long, soft hollow in the grass, a line you only notice once someone points it out, and then can't stop seeing.
Read the complete The vallum between the field boundary sout write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The vallum between the field boundary sout, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Skinburness.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Skinburness comes up about 143 km into the recorded legs. Next is Brownrigg North tower 21b.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brownrigg North tower 21b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Brownrigg North tower 21b closes the day.
Brownrigg North tower 21b → Skinburness is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Skinburness → Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End → The vallum between the field boundary sout is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The vallum between the field boundary sout → back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between West End → back through Skinburness is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Skinburness → Brownrigg North tower 21b is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.