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.
From Haydon Bridge it runs 275 km to Haydon Bridge; allow about 4 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of Bewcastle Roman fort, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66, Skinburness and Burrow Walls Roman fort. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Marching soldiers did not sleep in the open. Every night on campaign, a Roman army dug a ditch and threw up a rampart around its tents, and the faint outlines of these temporary camps are scattered across Northumberland, some dating from the conquest of the north, others from the building of the Wall. The camp near the old Grindon school, close to the Stanegate a little north of Haydon Bridge, is one of these. You will need a good map and a low sun to make out its banks.
Read the complete Grindon School Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grindon School Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Bewcastle Roman fort.
Bewcastle is one of the loneliest places in Cumbria, and it has been for a very long time. Roman soldiers built an outpost fort here, about ten kilometres north of Hadrian's Wall, on a plateau whose shape the walls followed, giving it an unusual six-sided plan. It was a forward base for scouts watching the tribes beyond the frontier, and it was linked to the Wall at Birdoswald by a road. Later, a medieval castle was built into one corner of the old Roman defences, and its broken walls still stand above the beck.
Read the complete Bewcastle Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bewcastle Roman fort comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
The western end of Hadrian's Wall runs right through Carlisle, and the stretch counted as wall mile 66 lies on the edge of the city, close to where the wall crossed the River Eden. The Roman town of Luguvalium grew up here, and the fort at Stanwix, across the river, housed a cavalry regiment and was the largest on the wall. Very little of the stone wall survives in the city, much of it having been robbed for buildings, but the line of the wall and vallum can be traced in places, and the Tullie House museum tells the story of Roman Carlisle with excellent displays.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. Next is Skinburness.
Skinburness is a scatter of houses at the tip of a shingle spit on the Solway coast of Cumbria, just north of Silloth, looking across the wide, shimmering estuary to the hills of Scotland. When the tide goes out, the Solway empties into vast expanses of sand and mud, with channels winding through them, and the light changes constantly as clouds race overhead. On clear evenings, the sunsets over the Scottish hills, with the dark bulk of Criffel opposite, are spectacular.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Skinburness, about halfway. Next is Burrow Walls Roman fort.
On the northern edge of Workington, near the mouth of the river Derwent, a fragment of stone wall stands alone in a field, a jagged piece of masonry rising above the grass. It is part of Burrow Walls, a Roman fort that guarded the Cumbrian coast, one of the chain of defences that extended from the western end of Hadrian's Wall down the shore to watch for raiders crossing from Scotland and Ireland. Much of the fort's stone was reused in a medieval building on the site, and what survives today is modest, but it is part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site and has a lonely charm, with views over the sea and the river.
Read the complete Burrow Walls Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burrow Walls Roman fort sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Skinburness.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Skinburness comes up about 170 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 206 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. Next is back through Bewcastle Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bewcastle Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bewcastle Roman fort, late in the day. Next is Grindon School Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grindon School Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 275 km.
Grindon School Roman temporary camp → Bewcastle Roman fort is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bewcastle Roman fort → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → Skinburness is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Skinburness → Burrow Walls Roman fort is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burrow Walls Roman fort → back through Skinburness is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Skinburness → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → back through Bewcastle Roman fort is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bewcastle Roman fort → Grindon School Roman temporary camp is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.