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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Durham it runs 242 km to Durham; allow about 3 h 14 of riding. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal, The section of Stanegate Roman road from F and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 35 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The river Wear loops around a rocky peninsula in a tight horseshoe, and on top of it, rising above the trees, stand Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, one of the most impressive views in Britain. The Normans built both in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, soon after the Conquest, as a statement of power in the turbulent north. The cathedral is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, with massive columns carved with zigzags and spirals, and its stone rib vaults are among the earliest of their kind in Europe, pointing the way to Gothic architecture. Together, castle and cathedral were listed by UNESCO in 1986.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durham Castle and Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f.
Here, at the western edge of Newcastle, the Roman frontier starts to escape the city. Wall mile 8 lies around Newburn and Throckley, with Blaydon across the Tyne and the suburbs thinning into fields as you head west. The masonry itself has mostly vanished under roads, houses and farmland, but the line of the Wall and the great earthwork of the Vallum to its south can still be followed in hummocks, ditches and the occasional consolidated stretch of stone, most famously a little further west at Heddon-on-the-Wall, where a long run survives at nearly its full original width.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f comes up 34 km in. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal.
North of Hexham, where the land rises above the Tyne valley, the B6318, the military road built in the eighteenth century partly on top of Hadrian's Wall, runs straight across open country, and here, near the hamlet of St Oswald's, the remains of the wall and the vallum, the great earthwork that ran along its southern side, are clearly visible in the fields. The vallum was a broad ditch flanked by mounds, marking a military zone, and its scale still impresses. This stretch is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
69 km in you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal. Next is The section of Stanegate Roman road from F.
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, and on the road through the South Tyne valley it is easy to believe that this is where England quietly runs out of people. Just north of the town, the line of the Stanegate, the Roman road that linked Carlisle with Corbridge, crosses farmland on the flank of the valley. Little of it shows as more than a faint agger, a raised bank under the grass, but it is older than Hadrian's Wall, which runs along the crags a few kilometres to the north.
Read the complete The section of Stanegate Roman road from F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F, about halfway. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Just east of Carlisle, near the village of Scotby, the Wall leaves almost no mark on the land. Here, at the western end of the Roman frontier, it was built first of turf and timber before being rebuilt in stone, and much of that stone has since been carried off to build farmhouses, churches and field walls. What survives is mostly buried, a faint line in the pasture or a slight ridge followed by a hedge. The vallum, the great earthwork that ran behind the wall, sometimes shows as a shallow trough in the fields. Yet this quiet stretch is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further east, and walking the Hadrian's Wall Path through it gives a sense of continuity across the whole country.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La sits at 138 km, about halfway. Next is back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The section of Stanegate Roman road from F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F comes up 172 km in. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
206 km in you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f, late in the day. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 242 km.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → The section of Stanegate Roman road from F is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.