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.
A 140 km round trip from Carlisle - roughly 2 h 33 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne, Willowford Roman temporary camp, Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip and Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
Carlisle was a Roman town before it was an English one. Luguvalium grew beside the Eden, and just across the river at Stanwix stood the largest fort on Hadrian's Wall, home to a cavalry regiment of a thousand men. The wall itself ran along the north side of today's city, and though houses and roads cover it, its line can be traced by plaques and fragments, and the wall and its Vallum are part of the UNESCO listing. A stretch of the ditch and the foundations of milecastles are visible beyond the suburbs.
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 between the Cam Beck and Ne.
The Cam Beck is a small stream that tumbles out of the hills and runs down towards the Irthing, and the Wall crosses it near Banks, in a stretch where the line is still very clear. Here the Wall's visible remains run along a ridge, with the green bank of the Vallum behind, the long ditch that the Romans dug on the south side to mark the military zone. The label gives the place as the stretch between the Cam Beck and Newtown, in the east of Cumbria, and the walk there is among the easiest on the whole line, with open fields and distant views of the Pennines. The stone Wall was built on a narrower foundation here than in the east, and a turf Wall once stood alongside it.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Willowford Roman temporary camp.
Rivers move, and the Irthing at Willowford proves it. When the Romans built the Wall here, they carried it across the river on a bridge, and the massive stone abutment of that bridge survives on the east bank, now well away from the water, because the river has shifted west over the centuries. Nearby, the earthwork outline of a Roman temporary camp, one of many marching camps built by units on campaign or on construction duty, lies in the fields. Temporary camps were ramparts of turf and ditches thrown up for a few nights or weeks, and their faint shapes are often best seen from the air or in low winter light.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 32 km into the recorded legs you reach Willowford Roman temporary camp. Next is Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip.
Beside the river Gelt, a small stream that runs through a wooded sandstone gorge east of Carlisle, a smooth face of rock bears an inscription cut by Roman soldiers some eighteen centuries ago. This is the Written Rock of Gelt. It marks the quarry where legionaries cut stone for the western part of Hadrian's Wall, and it records their work, with names and dates, in neat Latin letters that are still readable though weathered by the rain.
Read the complete Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip, about halfway. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
Gilsland is a village with a split personality. The boundary between Northumberland and Cumbria runs right through it, along the Poltross Burn, so the houses on one side are in one county and those on the other in another. Hadrian's Wall runs through it too, and the stretch of Wall, vallum and associated features around the village is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. The Wall here crosses the narrow gorge of the burn and the railway line, with a milecastle right next to the old station.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip comes up about 91 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Willowford Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Willowford Roman temporary camp. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 140 km.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne → Willowford Roman temporary camp is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Willowford Roman temporary camp → Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip → Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ → back through Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscrip → back through Willowford Roman temporary camp is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Willowford Roman temporary camp → back through Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall between the Cam Beck and Ne → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.