Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
121 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 09
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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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From Haydon Bridge it runs 121 km to Haydon Bridge; allow about 2 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp, Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar, Burnhead Roman temporary camp and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
Here the Wall is at its most dramatic. In the central sector of Hadrian's Wall, north of Haydon Bridge and Hexham in Northumberland, the Roman frontier runs along the top of the Whin Sill, a long ridge of hard volcanic rock that breaks the moorland into a series of north-facing cliffs. The Romans built their wall right along the crest, using the natural defences, and the result is a line of stone that rises and falls with the crags like the spine of a great animal. Behind it, to the south, runs the vallum, a broad earthwork ditch with mounds on either side that marked the military zone, still clearly visible across the fields.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is where the day begins. Next is Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp.
2. Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, a claim measured, by one method or another, from the farthest tips of the island, and it does sit in the narrow waist of the country, between the North Sea and the Irish Sea. The town, with about four thousand people, lies in the South Tyne valley, just south of Hadrian's Wall, and it is a good base for exploring the central section of the frontier.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp comes up 17 km in. Next is Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar.
3. Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar
Building Hadrian's Wall took an enormous amount of stone, and the Romans quarried it wherever they could find good sandstone near the line. In the woods and crags around Banks and Lanercost, east of Brampton, several of these quarries survive, and on the rock faces the soldiers who worked them left their marks: names, unit symbols and short inscriptions carved into the stone nearly two thousand years ago. Coombe Crag, near the Wall here, is one of the best known, with names scratched by men who were probably bored, tired and far from home. Finding them takes a bit of searching and some imagination, as the letters are worn and lichen-covered, but there is something deeply human about them.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
34 km in you reach Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar. Next is Burnhead Roman temporary camp.
4. Burnhead Roman temporary camp
The Stanegate is the Roman road that came before the Wall, and Burnhead lies close to its line. Before Hadrian's engineers began their great work in AD 122, the frontier of Roman Britain ran along this road from Corbridge in the east to Carlisle in the west, guarded by forts at intervals of about a day's march, and the Wall was built a little to the north, along the crags. The camp at Burnhead, which belongs to the temporary camps that armies built on the march, is one of the faint earthworks in this country, a low square of bank and ditch in a field above the Haltwhistle Burn.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Burnhead Roman temporary camp, about halfway. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
5. Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
East of Carlisle, near the market town of Brampton, Hadrian's Wall crosses a landscape of rolling farmland, hedges and woods along the valley of the River Irthing. Here the wall and its vallum, the great earthwork ditch that ran behind it on the southern side, cross fields where the stone has mostly been robbed for farm buildings, but the earthworks remain clearly visible as long ridges and hollows in the grass.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 121 km.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel to Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp to Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar
Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp → Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar to Burnhead Roman temporary camp
Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar → Burnhead Roman temporary camp is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burnhead Roman temporary camp to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
Burnhead Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel to back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp to back through Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar
back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp → back through Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar to back through Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
back through Eight Roman inscriptions in the Roman quar → back through Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
back through Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.