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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
243 km from Haydon Bridge to Haydon Bridge, about 4 h 10 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel, Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f, Palisade ditches and Burrow Walls Roman fort. The line favours views over speed.
Just west of Chollerford the road climbs onto higher ground and the Wall begins to show itself, first as a hump in the fields, then as a ditch and earthwork running alongside the tarmac. This is the central sector of Hadrian's Wall, built from the 120s on the orders of the emperor Hadrian to mark the northern edge of Roman Britain, and the stretch around Carrawburgh is one of the most atmospheric. The vallum, a broad ditch flanked by mounds on the southern side of the Wall, is especially clear here, and it shows the Roman frontier was not just a wall but a whole military zone, with forts, milecastles, turrets, roads and earthworks.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
West of Birdoswald the Wall changes character. The central crags fall behind, the River Irthing loops through its gorge below, and the frontier runs across gentler farmland towards Banks and Hare Hill, where one of the tallest surviving fragments of the Wall still stands, patched by later hands. Here too the vallum, the great earthwork south of the Wall, can be traced across the fields, and the remains of turrets at Banks East and Pike Hill sit right beside the road. It is a quieter stretch than the famous sections further east, and all the better for it.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f.
West of Carlisle the Eden slows and starts to meander, swinging in wide loops through flat meadows on its way to the Solway, and here at Grinsdale Hadrian's Wall ran along the high ground above the river. It is a gentle, almost secret stretch of countryside, only a few miles from the city but feeling much further. The tiny hamlet of Grinsdale has a church dedicated to St Kentigern, an early saint associated with this region, and a scatter of farms. The Wall has gone, robbed for building stone centuries ago, but the line it followed is clear in the field boundaries and the lie of the land.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f. Next is Palisade ditches.
Hadrian's Wall did not simply stop at the edge of the Solway. Beyond its western end at Bowness, the Romans continued the frontier down the Cumbrian coast with a chain of milefortlets and towers, and in places with ditches and palisades, to watch over the shoreline and guard against raids across the firth from what is now south west Scotland. The palisade ditches near Silloth are part of that coastal system, faint traces in the flat land behind the dunes, and they are a reminder that the Roman frontier was a complex network that stretched far beyond the famous stone wall.
Read the complete Palisade ditches write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Palisade ditches, about halfway. 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.
Burrow Walls Roman fort sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Palisade ditches.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palisade ditches write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Palisade ditches comes up about 151 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 185 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel, late in the day.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 243 km.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f → Palisade ditches is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palisade ditches → Burrow Walls Roman fort is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burrow Walls Roman fort → back through Palisade ditches is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palisade ditches → back through Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall between Grinsdale and the f → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.