Why this ride
359 km from Bath to Bath, about 6 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: Avebury and Associated Monuments, Stonehenge, New Swanage to Studland Bay and back through Stonehenge. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
City of Bath and New Swanage to Studland Bay
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 359 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 16
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. City of Bath
Bath is one of the few whole cities on the UNESCO list, and it earns it twice over. Underneath lie the Roman baths of Aquae Sulis, built around the only natural hot springs in Britain, where water still comes up at around forty-six degrees and the great pool, with its later colonnade above, steams in the cold. On top sits the Georgian city that eighteenth-century society built when Bath became the place to see and be seen, in honey-coloured local limestone: the Circus, the sweep of the Royal Crescent, the shops on Pulteney Bridge over the Avon and the long elegant terraces climbing the hills.
Read the complete City of Bath write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
City of Bath is where the day begins. Next is Avebury and Associated Monuments.
2. Avebury and Associated Monuments
Avebury is the place where a village grew up inside a stone circle. The henge, a huge circular bank and ditch enclosing the largest stone circle in Britain, was built around four and a half thousand years ago, and the village, with its church, its manor house and its pub, sits partly within it, with a road running right through the middle. You can walk among the stones, touch them, sit beside them, and watch the sheep grazing around them, which is a very different experience from the controlled visits at Stonehenge, its more famous partner on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Avebury and Associated Monuments write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Avebury and Associated Monuments comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stonehenge.
3. Stonehenge
Nobody quite knows why Stonehenge was built, and that is part of its power. Begun around 3000 BC as a circular ditch and bank, it was remodelled over the following thousand years, and the great sarsen stones, some weighing more than twenty tonnes, were raised around 2500 BC. The sarsens came from the Marlborough Downs, about twenty-five kilometres north; the smaller bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in west Wales, more than two hundred kilometres away, and how they were moved remains one of the great puzzles of prehistory. The monument is aligned with the sunrise at the summer solstice and the sunset at the winter solstice, and thousands gather here at those times. With Avebury and the surrounding landscape, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Stonehenge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Stonehenge. Next is New Swanage to Studland Bay.
4. New Swanage to Studland Bay
Between Swanage and Studland, the chalk of the Purbeck Hills meets the sea at the Foreland, and the white stacks of Old Harry Rocks stand off the headland like broken teeth. This is the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast, the World Heritage stretch of Dorset and East Devon that runs back through two hundred million years of geological history, and here the rocks are the youngest of the sequence, Cretaceous chalk. From Ballard Down above New Swanage, the views take in Swanage Bay, the Isle of Wight and the long sandy curve of Studland Bay.
Read the complete New Swanage to Studland Bay write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
New Swanage to Studland Bay, about halfway. Next is back through Stonehenge.
5. back through Stonehenge
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stonehenge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Stonehenge sits at 223 km, about halfway. Next is back through Avebury and Associated Monuments.
6. back through Avebury and Associated Monuments
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Avebury and Associated Monuments write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Avebury and Associated Monuments comes up about 313 km into the recorded legs. Next is City of Bath.
7. City of Bath
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete City of Bath write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
City of Bath closes the day.
Leg by leg
City of Bath to Avebury and Associated Monuments
City of Bath → Avebury and Associated Monuments is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Avebury and Associated Monuments to Stonehenge
Avebury and Associated Monuments → Stonehenge is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stonehenge to New Swanage to Studland Bay
Stonehenge → New Swanage to Studland Bay is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
New Swanage to Studland Bay to back through Stonehenge
New Swanage to Studland Bay → back through Stonehenge is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Stonehenge to back through Avebury and Associated Monuments
back through Stonehenge → back through Avebury and Associated Monuments is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Avebury and Associated Monuments to City of Bath
back through Avebury and Associated Monuments → City of Bath is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.