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.
270 km from Hexham to Hexham, about 4 h 01 of riding. The stops in between: The section of Stanegate Roman road from F, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La, Herd Hill North and Sea Brows. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
North of Hexham, where the land rises above the Tyne valley, the B6318, the military road built in the eighteenth century partly on top of Hadrian's Wall, runs straight across open country, and here, near the hamlet of St Oswald's, the remains of the wall and the vallum, the great earthwork that ran along its southern side, are clearly visible in the fields. The vallum was a broad ditch flanked by mounds, marking a military zone, and its scale still impresses. This stretch is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is where the day begins. Next is The section of Stanegate Roman road from F.
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, and on the road through the South Tyne valley it is easy to believe that this is where England quietly runs out of people. Just north of the town, the line of the Stanegate, the Roman road that linked Carlisle with Corbridge, crosses farmland on the flank of the valley. Little of it shows as more than a faint agger, a raised bank under the grass, but it is older than Hadrian's Wall, which runs along the crags a few kilometres to the north.
Read the complete The section of Stanegate Roman road from F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Just east of Carlisle, near the village of Scotby, the Wall leaves almost no mark on the land. Here, at the western end of the Roman frontier, it was built first of turf and timber before being rebuilt in stone, and much of that stone has since been carried off to build farmhouses, churches and field walls. What survives is mostly buried, a faint line in the pasture or a slight ridge followed by a hedge. The vallum, the great earthwork that ran behind the wall, sometimes shows as a shallow trough in the fields. Yet this quiet stretch is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further east, and walking the Hadrian's Wall Path through it gives a sense of continuity across the whole country.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La 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 between Birky La. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Herd Hill North, about halfway. Next is Sea Brows.
Maryport is a small harbour town on the Cumbrian coast, built in the eighteenth century by the Senhouse family, who named it after Mary, the wife of Humphrey Senhouse. Long before that it was a Roman fort called Alauna, part of the coastal defences that continued south along the shore from the end of Hadrian's Wall. The Senhouse Roman Museum, set in a former Victorian naval battery on the cliffs, has a remarkable collection of altars found nearby, many of them dedicated by the commanders of the cohorts stationed here.
Read the complete Sea Brows write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sea Brows sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Herd Hill North.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Herd Hill North write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Herd Hill North comes up about 172 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La 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 between Birky La. Next is back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The section of Stanegate Roman road from F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 270 km.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → The section of Stanegate Roman road from F is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → Herd Hill North is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Herd Hill North → Sea Brows is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sea Brows → back through Herd Hill North is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Herd Hill North → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The section of Stanegate Roman road from F → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.