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 Carlisle it runs 205 km to Carlisle; allow about 3 h 28 of riding. It goes by way of Wolsty North tower 13a, Parton Roman fort, Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house and back through Parton Roman fort. The line favours views over speed.
34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 31 km this is Hardknott and Wrynose Passes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
When King Edward I died in 1307, he was camped on the Solway marshes, on his way north to deal with Robert the Bruce once more, and the spot is marked by a monument beside the road near Burgh by Sands. Long before him the Romans had built a fort here, called Aballava, on a low ridge above the tidal flats, with a garrison of troops from the Moorish provinces of North Africa. Today the little village is spread along a single road, and its church, St Michael's, is built partly of Roman stone and has a defensive tower, a reminder of the centuries of Border raiding that followed.
Read the complete Burgh by Sands Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burgh by Sands Roman fort is where the day begins. Next is Wolsty North tower 13a.
Silloth is a small Victorian town on the Solway coast of Cumbria, built in the nineteenth century as a port and a seaside resort, with wide cobbled streets, a green along the seafront and views across the Solway Firth to the hills of Scotland. Just south of the town, at Wolsty, the Romans built a tower as part of the defences that extended Hadrian's Wall down the Cumbrian coast. Tower 13a was one of a chain of small towers and milefortlets, spaced along the shore to watch for raiders crossing the firth from the north.
Read the complete Wolsty North tower 13a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wolsty North tower 13a comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parton Roman fort.
Hadrian's Wall stopped at Bowness-on-Solway, but the Roman frontier did not. Down the Cumbrian coast, the army built a chain of forts, milefortlets and towers to watch the sea and stop raiders slipping round the end of the Wall, and Parton, just north of Whitehaven, was one of them. The fort is known from excavations and records rather than standing remains, and the coastal defences as a whole are included in the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Standing on the cliffs above the sea, you can see why the Romans worried: across the water lie the Isle of Man and, on clear days, the hills of Scotland.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Parton Roman fort. Next is Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house.
Walls Castle is the odd name for a Roman bath house, and the building still stands to a height of about four metres, one of the tallest Roman structures in northern England. It stood outside the fort of Glannoventa at Ravenglass, a harbour station at the meeting of three rivers, the Irt, the Mite and the Esk, and in the dry shelter of the dunes it has survived because its walls were thick and well built. You can walk around it on a short path from the village, and see niches and a doorway in the thick walls. The fort itself lies mostly under farmland and the railway.
Read the complete Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house, about halfway. Next is back through Parton Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Parton Roman fort sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through Wolsty North tower 13a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wolsty North tower 13a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wolsty North tower 13a comes up about 169 km into the recorded legs. Next is Burgh by Sands Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Burgh by Sands Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burgh by Sands Roman fort closes the day.
Burgh by Sands Roman fort → Wolsty North tower 13a is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wolsty North tower 13a → Parton Roman fort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parton Roman fort → Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house → back through Parton Roman fort is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parton Roman fort → back through Wolsty North tower 13a is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wolsty North tower 13a → Burgh by Sands Roman fort is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.