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 Annan it runs 196 km to Annan; allow about 3 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of Wolsty North tower 13a, Burrow Walls Roman fort, Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house and back through Burrow Walls Roman fort. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Across the water from here lies Eastriggs, a quiet Scottish village with a loud past. During the First World War a huge munitions factory stretched for miles along the Solway coast from Gretna to Annan, and the cordite paste that women workers mixed by hand earned the nickname devil's porridge. Thousands lived in purpose-built townships, and the whole operation was kept secret. A museum in Eastriggs now tells the story. The reason the label brings us to the English shore, though, is the Roman frontier, because Hadrian's Wall did not simply stop at Bowness-on-Solway. Beyond it a chain of milefortlets and towers carried on down the Cumbrian coast, watching the sea rather than the hills.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the acce write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the acce is where the day begins. Next is Wolsty North tower 13a.
Silloth is a small Victorian town on the Solway coast of Cumbria, built in the nineteenth century as a port and a seaside resort, with wide cobbled streets, a green along the seafront and views across the Solway Firth to the hills of Scotland. Just south of the town, at Wolsty, the Romans built a tower as part of the defences that extended Hadrian's Wall down the Cumbrian coast. Tower 13a was one of a chain of small towers and milefortlets, spaced along the shore to watch for raiders crossing the firth from the north.
Read the complete Wolsty North tower 13a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wolsty North tower 13a comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Burrow Walls Roman fort. Next is Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house.
Walls Castle is the odd name for a Roman bath house, and the building still stands to a height of about four metres, one of the tallest Roman structures in northern England. It stood outside the fort of Glannoventa at Ravenglass, a harbour station at the meeting of three rivers, the Irt, the Mite and the Esk, and in the dry shelter of the dunes it has survived because its walls were thick and well built. You can walk around it on a short path from the village, and see niches and a doorway in the thick walls. The fort itself lies mostly under farmland and the railway.
Read the complete Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house, about halfway. Next is back through Burrow Walls Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Burrow Walls Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Burrow Walls Roman fort sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Wolsty North tower 13a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wolsty North tower 13a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wolsty North tower 13a comes up about 165 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the acce.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the acce write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the acce closes the day.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the acce → Wolsty North tower 13a is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wolsty North tower 13a → Burrow Walls Roman fort is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burrow Walls Roman fort → Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house → back through Burrow Walls Roman fort is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Burrow Walls Roman fort → back through Wolsty North tower 13a is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wolsty North tower 13a → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the acce is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.