Burgh by Sands Roman fort and Red House Roman camp
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
131 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 07
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 131 km to Carlisle; allow about 2 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: The Roman bath house to the north east of, Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp, Red House Roman camp and back through Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Burgh by Sands Roman fort → The Roman bath house to the north east of
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.
Chapter facts
Length
24 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Burgh by Sands Roman fort
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Burgh by Sands Roman fort is where the day begins. Next is The Roman bath house to the north east of.
2. The Roman bath house to the north east of
Brampton is the kind of small Cumbrian market town that riders pass on the A69 without a second look, which is a pity, because the country just north and east of it is some of the richest Roman and medieval ground on the whole Wall. The site of the Roman bath house lies close to the town, near the remains of an early fort on the Stanegate, and like most bath houses it sat outside the fort walls, where its furnaces and the risk of fire could do less harm. Little or nothing stands above ground, so come for the setting rather than the stones.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Roman bath house to the north east of comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp.
3. Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp
Haltwhistle sits in the Tyne Gap, the low cleft where the South Tyne and the old Carlisle road squeeze between the high moors of the north Pennines and the Whin Sill ridge, and that gap is the reason the Romans cared about this ground. A temporary camp is exactly what it sounds like: a ditched and banked enclosure thrown up for a night or a few weeks by an army on the march or on building duty, then abandoned. Most were ploughed flat long ago and now show only as crop marks or faint corners in a pasture, so go in expecting a field, not a ruin. What you get is the story, and the story is good.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp. Next is Red House Roman camp.
4. Red House Roman camp
A few kilometres west of Hexham the South and North Tyne have long since joined, and the valley widens into a level green floor of fields, hedges and small woods, with the Wall's ridge just visible to the north. The Red House Roman camp lies in this farmland, about five kilometres from Haydon Bridge, Acomb and Hexham, on the Roman road known as the Stanegate, which ran across the neck of Britain from Carlisle to Corbridge.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Burgh by Sands Roman fort closes the day.
Leg by leg
Burgh by Sands Roman fort to The Roman bath house to the north east of
Burgh by Sands Roman fort → The Roman bath house to the north east of is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Roman bath house to the north east of to Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp
The Roman bath house to the north east of → Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp to Red House Roman camp
Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp → Red House Roman camp is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Red House Roman camp to back through Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp
Red House Roman camp → back through Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp to back through The Roman bath house to the north east of
back through Sunny Rigg 1 Roman temporary camp → back through The Roman bath house to the north east of is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Roman bath house to the north east of to Burgh by Sands Roman fort
back through The Roman bath house to the north east of → Burgh by Sands Roman fort is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.