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 131 km round trip from Haltwhistle - roughly 2 h 00 in the saddle. The stops in between: Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp, Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank, Roman fort and back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank. The line favours views over speed.
Great Chesters, known to the Romans as Aesica, sits high on the Whin Sill ridge in Northumberland, the dark dolerite crag that Hadrian's Wall uses as its backbone for much of its central length. The fort is small, a modest rectangle of grassy banks and a few stone foundations in a field, and it is easy to drive past without noticing, which is part of its appeal. What you get is the setting: a wide skyline, the wall visible as a rough stone line running east and west, and the sort of silence that only comes from a long way from any town.
Read the complete Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wa is where the day begins. Next is Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
Roman armies on campaign dug in every night. Wherever they halted, soldiers threw up a rectangular earth rampart and ditch around their tents, and on Walwick Fell, a short way west of the North Tyne, the faint outline of one of those temporary camps survives in the rough pasture. You need a keen eye and low sunlight to make it out, but its presence is a reminder that the Wall was built, maintained and defended by thousands of men who lived and worked in these hills, sometimes under canvas, sometimes in stone forts.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
The road west from Heddon-on-the-Wall runs straight as a ruler, and there is a reason for that. The B6318, known locally as the Military Road, was built by General Wade's engineers after the Jacobite rising of 1745 so that troops could move quickly between Newcastle and Carlisle, and for long stretches they laid it right on top of Hadrian's Wall, using the Roman stones as foundation. At Oatens Bank, just beyond Heddon, you ride with the Wall beneath your tyres and the ditch and vallum still visible in the fields beside you, two thousand years of frontier engineering compressed into a few metres.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank. Next is Roman fort.
Newcastle got its name from a castle built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, but the hilltop he chose above the Tyne had already been used for centuries. Beneath the Castle Keep and the Black Gate lie the remains of Pons Aelius, a small Roman fort that guarded a bridge across the river near the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. The name honoured Hadrian himself, whose family name was Aelius. Outlines of the fort are marked in the paving around the keep, and the Swing Bridge below crosses the river close to where the Roman bridge stood.
Read the complete Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman fort, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp comes up about 111 km into the recorded legs. Next is Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wa closes the day.
Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wa → Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → Roman fort is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → Great Chesters Roman fort and Hadrian's Wa is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.