Why this ride
From Greenhead it runs 286 km to Greenhead; allow about 4 h 19 of riding. The stops in between: Pasture House, The English Lake District and back through Pasture House. It strings together lakeside roads.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Crooks Roman temporary camp and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 286 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 19
- 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
Pasture House → 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 70 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 85 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Crooks Roman temporary camp
The Roman army on the march built a camp every night: a rectangle of ditch and rampart, with tents inside, defended by sentries. These temporary camps, often used only once or for a short campaign, left faint traces in the landscape, and many have been found from the air in the north of England. Crooks, near Haltwhistle and Greenhead, in the area where Northumberland meets Cumbria, is one of several temporary camps along the line of Hadrian's Wall, probably used by the soldiers who built the Wall in the second century.
Read the complete Crooks Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crooks Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Pasture House.
2. Pasture House
The Solway Firth is one of Britain's great tidal estuaries, wide, shallow and quick. At low water, a vast expanse of sand and mud opens, and when the tide returns, it advances across the flats with astonishing speed. Pasture House lies on the English shore, on the Cardurnock peninsula, with the Scottish town of Annan visible across the water about six kilometres to the north. The Romans extended Hadrian's Wall defences down this coast, and Swarthy Hill milefortlet 21, on a neighbouring ride, is one of a chain of small forts that guarded against crossings.
Read the complete Pasture House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pasture House comes up about 58 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 143 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Pasture House.
4. back through Pasture House
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pasture House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Pasture House, late in the day. Next is Crooks Roman temporary camp.
5. Crooks Roman temporary camp
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Crooks 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 Crooks Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Crooks Roman temporary camp to Pasture House
Crooks Roman temporary camp → Pasture House is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pasture House to The English Lake District
Pasture House → The English Lake District is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The English Lake District to back through Pasture House
The English Lake District → back through Pasture House is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Pasture House to Crooks Roman temporary camp
back through Pasture House → Crooks Roman temporary camp is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.