CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 245 km round trip from Birtley - roughly 4 h 08 in the saddle. The stops in between: Roman signal station on Mains Rigg, Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav, Palisade ditches and Burrow Walls Roman fort. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Of all the Roman sites along Hadrian's Wall, Carrawburgh may be the most mysterious. The fort itself, called Brocolitia, is largely unexcavated, a grassy platform beside the Military Road, but just below it, in a boggy hollow, stands the reconstructed outline of a small temple of Mithras, the soldiers' god, whose cult was popular among the Roman army. The temple was excavated in 1949, and its three altars, now replaced by replicas, the originals being in the Great North Museum in Newcastle, were dedicated by commanders of the garrison. Nearby, a spring dedicated to the water goddess Coventina yielded an astonishing hoard of coins, altars and offerings when it was excavated in the nineteenth century, around thirteen thousand coins in all.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is where the day begins. Next is Roman signal station on Mains Rigg.
On a low ridge south of the Wall, near the village of Low Row, the foundations of a Roman stone tower sit in a field with a commanding view up and down the Irthing valley. The signal station on Mains Rigg belonged to the system of the Stanegate, the road that ran from Corbridge to Carlisle before the Wall was built, and it allowed messages to be passed between forts by fire, smoke or flags. From here, on a clear day, you can see for miles: west to Carlisle, east toward the Pennines and north over the Wall.
Read the complete Roman signal station on Mains Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg comes up 35 km in. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav.
Carlisle was the western hub of Hadrian's Wall, and on its northern edge, at Stanwix, stood the largest fort on the whole frontier. Known to the Romans as Uxelodunum, it held a cavalry regiment about a thousand strong, and its commander was one of the most important officers on the wall. Little of it is visible now, since the fort lies under the streets and gardens of a suburb, but the line of the wall can be traced through the town, in parts of the pavement and the shape of the streets, and a short surviving section lies in a quiet corner near the river Eden.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
70 km in you reach Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav. Next is Palisade ditches.
Hadrian's Wall did not simply stop at the edge of the Solway. Beyond its western end at Bowness, the Romans continued the frontier down the Cumbrian coast with a chain of milefortlets and towers, and in places with ditches and palisades, to watch over the shoreline and guard against raids across the firth from what is now south west Scotland. The palisade ditches near Silloth are part of that coastal system, faint traces in the flat land behind the dunes, and they are a reminder that the Roman frontier was a complex network that stretched far beyond the famous stone wall.
Read the complete Palisade ditches write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Palisade ditches, about halfway. Next is Burrow Walls Roman fort.
On the northern edge of Workington, near the mouth of the river Derwent, a fragment of stone wall stands alone in a field, a jagged piece of masonry rising above the grass. It is part of Burrow Walls, a Roman fort that guarded the Cumbrian coast, one of the chain of defences that extended from the western end of Hadrian's Wall down the shore to watch for raiders crossing from Scotland and Ireland. Much of the fort's stone was reused in a medieval building on the site, and what survives today is modest, but it is part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site and has a lonely charm, with views over the sea and the river.
Read the complete Burrow Walls Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burrow Walls Roman fort sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Palisade ditches.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palisade ditches write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Palisade ditches comes up 174 km in. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
209 km in you reach back through Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav. Next is back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman signal station on Mains Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg, late in the day. Next is Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 245 km.
Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & → Roman signal station on Mains Rigg is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg → Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav → Palisade ditches is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palisade ditches → Burrow Walls Roman fort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burrow Walls Roman fort → back through Palisade ditches is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palisade ditches → back through Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav → back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg → Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.