Why this ride
From Greenhead it runs 288 km to Greenhead; allow about 4 h 20 of riding. It goes by way of Herd Hill North, The English Lake District and back through Herd Hill North. Lakes are the scenery here.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 288 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 20
- 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
Herd Hill North → 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
- 84 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is where the day begins. Next is Herd Hill North.
2. Herd Hill North
Bowness-on-Solway is the western end of Hadrian's Wall, a quiet village on a low headland above the estuary, and Herd Hill lies a little farther along the shore on the Cardurnock peninsula. Roman engineers built the wall to Bowness, where the fort of Maia stood, and then continued the defences south along the Cumbrian coast with milefortlets and towers. The northern watchtower on this hill was one of the chain that watched across the water to Scotland, at a place where the Solway is narrow enough to be forded at low tide.
Read the complete Herd Hill North write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Herd Hill North comes up about 60 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 144 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Herd Hill North.
4. back through Herd Hill North
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Herd Hill North write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Herd Hill North, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
5. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ to Herd Hill North
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ → Herd Hill North is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Herd Hill North to The English Lake District
Herd Hill North → The English Lake District is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The English Lake District to back through Herd Hill North
The English Lake District → back through Herd Hill North is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Herd Hill North to Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ
back through Herd Hill North → Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.