Skip to content
CurveScout

CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Burnhead Roman temporary camp and Parton Roman fort

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
231 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 41
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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

From Haltwhistle it runs 231 km to Haltwhistle; allow about 3 h 41 of riding. It goes by way of Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be, Parton Roman fort and back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be. The line favours views over speed.

Scenic road chapters

Burnhead Roman temporary camp → Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wal

Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 61 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.

Chapter facts
Length
56 km

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Burnhead Roman temporary camp

    The Stanegate is the Roman road that came before the Wall, and Burnhead lies close to its line. Before Hadrian's engineers began their great work in AD 122, the frontier of Roman Britain ran along this road from Corbridge in the east to Carlisle in the west, guarded by forts at intervals of about a day's march, and the Wall was built a little to the north, along the crags. The camp at Burnhead, which belongs to the temporary camps that armies built on the march, is one of the faint earthworks in this country, a low square of bank and ditch in a field above the Haltwhistle Burn.

    Read the complete Burnhead Roman temporary camp write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Burnhead Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be.

  2. 2. Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be

    The small Roman fort at Drumburgh sat on a low rise above the Solway marshes, guarding a stretch of Hadrian's Wall where the frontier ran along the edge of the firth towards its western end at Bowness. Nothing much survives of the fort itself, but its stones did not go far. Drumburgh Castle, a fortified farmhouse built in the sixteenth century by the Dacre family, is clearly made from reused Roman masonry, and you can still pick out dressed blocks and even the odd carved fragment set into its walls.

    Read the complete Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parton Roman fort.

  3. 3. 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.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    about 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Parton Roman fort. Next is back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be.

  4. 4. back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be, late in the day. Next is Burnhead Roman temporary camp.

  5. 5. Burnhead Roman temporary camp

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Burnhead Roman temporary camp write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Back at Burnhead Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.

Leg by leg

Burnhead Roman temporary camp to Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be

Burnhead Roman temporary camp → Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be to Parton Roman fort

Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be → Parton Roman fort is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Parton Roman fort to back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be

Parton Roman fort → back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be to Burnhead Roman temporary camp

back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be → Burnhead Roman temporary camp is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

More motorcycle rides nearby