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.
A 111 km round trip from Haltwhistle - roughly 1 h 31 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac, Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac. The line favours views over speed.
Cawfields is a spot where Hadrian's Wall shows its best side. The Wall runs along the top of the Whin Sill, a hard volcanic dolerite ridge, and at Cawfields it follows a steep edge above a flooded quarry, with a milecastle, number 42, sitting in a dip and clear stone steps in its entrance. The quarry was cut into the crag in the nineteenth century, and the lake it left is a popular picnic spot. The temporary camp of the label lies nearby, a faint earthwork from the days of marching armies. It is not much to look at, so use it as an excuse to walk the Wall instead.
Read the complete Cawfields Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cawfields Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac.
Just north of Hexham, the A road climbs out of the Tyne valley and meets the Roman frontier on a high, windy shoulder of Northumberland. Here, near Acomb, Wall and the crossing of the North Tyne at Chollerford, the line of Hadrian's Wall and its vallum runs across open farmland, sometimes visible as a low bank, sometimes followed by the road itself. Like every stretch of the frontier, it belongs to the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and this middle section is where the wall starts to feel serious, heading west into the wild central crags.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5.
Wall mile 5 is in Newcastle, which means that the Roman frontier is under a bus route. The Wall began at Wallsend and ran west, and the antiquarians who surveyed it numbered every Roman mile from there, so mile five falls in Benwell, a hillside district of terraces above the Tyne. Here the old line is now more or less the West Road, a main road into the city, and a short way off the road you can find real Roman stone. A tiny temple dedicated to a local British god called Antenociticus stands in a small garden between modern houses, with its three altars copied in place, and the remains of the Vallum, the broad ditch south of the Wall, crosses a causeway nearby. The fort of Condercum stood on the hill above, with a fine view east down the river.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac, late in the day. Next is Cawfields Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cawfields Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cawfields Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.
Cawfields Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac → Cawfields Roman temporary camp is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.