CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 287 km round trip from Prudhoe - roughly 4 h 06 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7, Durham Castle and Cathedral, Roman signal station on Mains Rigg and back through Durham Castle and Cathedral. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 32 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
East of Hexham, the Roman frontier crosses gentler country, a rolling landscape of fields, hedges and small woods north of the Tyne valley. Here the Wall itself has mostly disappeared, its stones long since recycled into farmhouses, field walls and the eighteenth-century Military Road that runs along its line. But the vallum, the broad ditch with mounds on either side that marked the southern edge of the military zone, survives in places as a clear earthwork across the fields, and walkers on the Hadrian's Wall Path follow it for miles. This section is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further west.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7.
Hadrian's Wall begins its life not on a windswept crag but in the streets of Newcastle, and wall mile 7 runs through the western suburbs around Benwell and Denton, a few kilometres from the city centre. The Romans numbered the miles westward from the fort at Wallsend, and in this stretch the line of the Wall follows the ridge now taken by the West Road. Most of it lies under houses and tarmac, but fragments surface where you least expect them, which is half the fun.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7 comes up 50 km in. 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.
100 km in you reach Durham Castle and Cathedral. Next is Roman signal station on Mains Rigg.
On a low ridge south of the Wall, near the village of Low Row, the foundations of a Roman stone tower sit in a field with a commanding view up and down the Irthing valley. The signal station on Mains Rigg belonged to the system of the Stanegate, the road that ran from Corbridge to Carlisle before the Wall was built, and it allowed messages to be passed between forts by fire, smoke or flags. From here, on a clear day, you can see for miles: west to Carlisle, east toward the Pennines and north over the Wall.
Read the complete Roman signal station on Mains Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg, 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 sits at 201 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7 comes up 251 km in. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 closes the day.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7 → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → Roman signal station on Mains Rigg is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg → back through Durham Castle and Cathedral is 94 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 in wall mile 7 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 7 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.