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.
259 km from Brampton to Brampton, about 3 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet, Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank, Roman camp and The vallum between Oatens Bank. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
North-east of Brampton, the Wall climbs out of the Irthing valley and runs along a ridge past the hamlet of Banks, and here you can see something many visitors miss: not only the Wall itself, but the vallum, the great earthwork ditch with banks on either side that the Romans dug just south of it. The vallum marked a military zone, a controlled strip where civilians could not wander freely, and seeing its long straight line beside the stone curtain makes the frontier feel less like a wall and more like a whole system of control.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
This is the stretch of Hadrian's Wall that everyone pictures: the stone curtain running along the crest of the Whin Sill, a hard dolerite ridge that ends in sheer north-facing crags, with lakes like Crag Lough and Greenlee Lough glinting below. Housesteads fort is close by, clinging to the hillside with its barracks, granaries and famous communal latrines, and the Wall dips and climbs over each crag in a way that seems almost reckless as engineering. The Sycamore Gap tree, which stood in a dip in the ridge for generations, was felled in an act of vandalism in 2023, and the loss is still felt locally.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet comes up about 32 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 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank. Next is Roman camp.
Hadrian's Wall in its central section does what a good border should: it picks the best ridge in the country and sits on top of it. The wall was begun in AD 122, under the emperor Hadrian, and it runs for about eighty Roman miles, roughly 117 kilometres, from the Tyne to the Solway. In the middle stretch, between Haydon Bridge and Haltwhistle, it follows a line of crags called the Whin Sill, a hard, dark volcanic rock that breaks the Northumbrian moors into a series of cliffs, so that the wall looks as if it grew out of the stone.
Read the complete Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman camp, about halfway. Next is The vallum between Oatens Bank.
Look south of the road near Oatens Bank, just west of Heddon on the Wall, and you will see it: a broad, flat-bottomed ditch running across the fields, with a low mound on either side. That is the vallum, and it is one of the strangest and most debated elements of Hadrian's Wall. It runs parallel to the wall, a short distance to the south, along most of its length, and it seems to have marked the rear edge of the military zone, controlling access from the south rather than defending against attack from the north. Crossings were limited to causeways opposite the forts, which suggests a kind of customs line.
Read the complete The vallum between Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The vallum between Oatens Bank sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Roman camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roman camp comes up about 162 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 199 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 259 km.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr → Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → Roman camp is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman camp → The vallum between Oatens Bank is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The vallum between Oatens Bank → back through Roman camp is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roman camp → back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.