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.
380 km from Greenhead to Greenhead, about 5 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Red House Roman camp, Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t, Durham Castle and Cathedral and Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 38 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Gilsland is a village with a split personality. The boundary between Northumberland and Cumbria runs right through it, along the Poltross Burn, so the houses on one side are in one county and those on the other in another. Hadrian's Wall runs through it too, and the stretch of Wall, vallum and associated features around the village is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. The Wall here crosses the narrow gorge of the burn and the railway line, with a milecastle right next to the old station.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is where the day begins. Next is Red House Roman camp.
A few kilometres west of Hexham the South and North Tyne have long since joined, and the valley widens into a level green floor of fields, hedges and small woods, with the Wall's ridge just visible to the north. The Red House Roman camp lies in this farmland, about five kilometres from Haydon Bridge, Acomb and Hexham, on the Roman road known as the Stanegate, which ran across the neck of Britain from Carlisle to Corbridge.
Read the complete Red House Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Red House Roman camp comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t.
Heddon-on-the-Wall is the place where the Wall comes up out of the suburbs and stands in the open. Here, west of Newcastle, a stretch of the Wall's foundation and lower courses survives beside the village, one of the few places in the east where it rises above knee height, and it is of the so-called Broad Wall type, wider than the narrower version built later in the sequence. The Romans changed their plan during construction, and here you can read the evidence in stone. Beside it, the vallum shows as a shallow ditch, and a short walk takes you along the line toward Throckley.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
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, about halfway. Next is Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of.
Fountains Abbey is the largest monastic ruin in Britain, and it stands in a valley so green and quiet that it hardly seems real. In 1132, a group of Benedictine monks, dissatisfied with the lax life at York, left their abbey and sought a stricter rule, and with the help of the archbishop, they settled in this remote valley beside the river Skell. They became Cistercians, and over the next four centuries the abbey grew rich on sheep and wool, building a huge church, a vaulted cellarium, and a tower that still rises above the ruins. Henry VIII dissolved the abbey in 1539, and the roofs were stripped for lead.
Read the complete Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral comes up about 284 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 323 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t. Next is back through Red House Roman camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Red House Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Red House Roman camp, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 380 km.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ → Red House Roman camp is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Red House Roman camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of → back through Durham Castle and Cathedral is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t → back through Red House Roman camp is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Red House Roman camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.