Why this ride
A 317 km round trip from Annan - roughly 4 h 40 in the saddle. The stops in between: Willowford Roman temporary camp, The English Lake District and back through Willowford Roman temporary camp. Lakes are the scenery here.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 317 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 40
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Willowford Roman temporary camp → The English Lake District
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 88 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 99 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a
The Solway Firth is a long, shallow estuary where the tide rushes in faster than a man can run, and at Cardurnock the land finishes in a flat, grassy peninsula that pokes into it. Hadrian's Wall once ran this way along the coast, and the line of the frontier continued along the shore with a series of milecastles and turrets watching the water. Turret 4a is one of those small signal towers, set about every third of a Roman mile, and nothing much remains of it above ground. What there is, instead, is a landscape that explains why the Romans put a tower here: wide, open and exposed, with a clear view over the sea to Scotland.
Read the complete Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a is where the day begins. Next is Willowford Roman temporary camp.
2. Willowford Roman temporary camp
Rivers move, and the Irthing at Willowford proves it. When the Romans built the Wall here, they carried it across the river on a bridge, and the massive stone abutment of that bridge survives on the east bank, now well away from the water, because the river has shifted west over the centuries. Nearby, the earthwork outline of a Roman temporary camp, one of many marching camps built by units on campaign or on construction duty, lies in the fields. Temporary camps were ramparts of turf and ditches thrown up for a few nights or weeks, and their faint shapes are often best seen from the air or in low winter light.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Willowford Roman temporary camp comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is The English Lake District.
3. The English Lake District
Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud round here, and anybody who has ridden the Lake District on a wet bank holiday will understand the appeal of being lonely. The English Lake District, listed by UNESCO in 2017 as a cultural landscape, is a compact knot of mountains, lakes and valleys in Cumbria, shaped by glaciers and then by centuries of sheep farming, slate quarrying and, from the late eighteenth century, by poets, painters and tourists who came looking for the sublime.
Read the complete The English Lake District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Willowford Roman temporary camp.
4. back through Willowford Roman temporary camp
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Willowford 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 through Willowford Roman temporary camp, late in the day. Next is Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a.
5. Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a to Willowford Roman temporary camp
Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a → Willowford Roman temporary camp is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Willowford Roman temporary camp to The English Lake District
Willowford Roman temporary camp → The English Lake District is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The English Lake District to back through Willowford Roman temporary camp
The English Lake District → back through Willowford Roman temporary camp is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Willowford Roman temporary camp to Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a
back through Willowford Roman temporary camp → Cardurnock Marsh turret 4a is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.