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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297 km from Hexham to Hexham, about 3 h 58 of riding. On the way it passes Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5, Fell End Roman temporary camp and section, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La and Herd Hill North. The line favours views over speed.
Just north of Hexham, the A road climbs out of the Tyne valley and meets the Roman frontier on a high, windy shoulder of Northumberland. Here, near Acomb, Wall and the crossing of the North Tyne at Chollerford, the line of Hadrian's Wall and its vallum runs across open farmland, sometimes visible as a low bank, sometimes followed by the road itself. Like every stretch of the frontier, it belongs to the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and this middle section is where the wall starts to feel serious, heading west into the wild central crags.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5.
Wall mile 5 is in Newcastle, which means that the Roman frontier is under a bus route. The Wall began at Wallsend and ran west, and the antiquarians who surveyed it numbered every Roman mile from there, so mile five falls in Benwell, a hillside district of terraces above the Tyne. Here the old line is now more or less the West Road, a main road into the city, and a short way off the road you can find real Roman stone. A tiny temple dedicated to a local British god called Antenociticus stands in a small garden between modern houses, with its three altars copied in place, and the remains of the Vallum, the broad ditch south of the Wall, crosses a causeway nearby. The fort of Condercum stood on the hill above, with a fine view east down the river.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 comes up 44 km in. Next is Fell End Roman temporary camp and section.
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, a claim based on measurements that no one outside the town quite trusts, but which has produced a very good tourist sign. The town sits in the South Tyne valley, a few kilometres south of Hadrian's Wall, and the wall and vallum between Fell End and the neighbouring crags form one of the most atmospheric sections of the whole frontier. The label here mentions a Roman temporary camp, and the district is full of such earthworks, built by marching legions as they moved through the area.
Read the complete Fell End Roman temporary camp and section write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
88 km in you reach Fell End Roman temporary camp and section. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Just east of Carlisle, near the village of Scotby, the Wall leaves almost no mark on the land. Here, at the western end of the Roman frontier, it was built first of turf and timber before being rebuilt in stone, and much of that stone has since been carried off to build farmhouses, churches and field walls. What survives is mostly buried, a faint line in the pasture or a slight ridge followed by a hedge. The vallum, the great earthwork that ran behind the wall, sometimes shows as a shallow trough in the fields. Yet this quiet stretch is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further east, and walking the Hadrian's Wall Path through it gives a sense of continuity across the whole country.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La, about halfway. Next is Herd Hill North.
Bowness-on-Solway is the western end of Hadrian's Wall, a quiet village on a low headland above the estuary, and Herd Hill lies a little farther along the shore on the Cardurnock peninsula. Roman engineers built the wall to Bowness, where the fort of Maia stood, and then continued the defences south along the Cumbrian coast with milefortlets and towers. The northern watchtower on this hill was one of the chain that watched across the water to Scotland, at a place where the Solway is narrow enough to be forded at low tide.
Read the complete Herd Hill North write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Herd Hill North sits at 175 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La comes up 219 km in. Next is back through Fell End Roman temporary camp and section.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fell End Roman temporary camp and section write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
263 km in you reach back through Fell End Roman temporary camp and section. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 297 km.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 → Fell End Roman temporary camp and section is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fell End Roman temporary camp and section → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → Herd Hill North is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Herd Hill North → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → back through Fell End Roman temporary camp and section is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fell End Roman temporary camp and section → back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 5 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.