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.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Newburn it runs 242 km to Newburn; allow about 3 h 50 of riding. The stops in between: Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp, Crooks Roman temporary camp, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 and Bewcastle Roman fort. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Heddon-on-the-Wall is the place where the Wall comes up out of the suburbs and stands in the open. Here, west of Newcastle, a stretch of the Wall's foundation and lower courses survives beside the village, one of the few places in the east where it rises above knee height, and it is of the so-called Broad Wall type, wider than the narrower version built later in the sequence. The Romans changed their plan during construction, and here you can read the evidence in stone. Beside it, the vallum shows as a shallow ditch, and a short walk takes you along the line toward Throckley.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t is where the day begins. Next is Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
Roman armies on campaign dug in every night. Wherever they halted, soldiers threw up a rectangular earth rampart and ditch around their tents, and on Walwick Fell, a short way west of the North Tyne, the faint outline of one of those temporary camps survives in the rough pasture. You need a keen eye and low sunlight to make it out, but its presence is a reminder that the Wall was built, maintained and defended by thousands of men who lived and worked in these hills, sometimes under canvas, sometimes in stone forts.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Crooks Roman temporary camp.
The Roman army on the march built a camp every night: a rectangle of ditch and rampart, with tents inside, defended by sentries. These temporary camps, often used only once or for a short campaign, left faint traces in the landscape, and many have been found from the air in the north of England. Crooks, near Haltwhistle and Greenhead, in the area where Northumberland meets Cumbria, is one of several temporary camps along the line of Hadrian's Wall, probably used by the soldiers who built the Wall in the second century.
Read the complete Crooks Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Crooks Roman temporary camp. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
The western end of Hadrian's Wall runs right through Carlisle, and the stretch counted as wall mile 66 lies on the edge of the city, close to where the wall crossed the River Eden. The Roman town of Luguvalium grew up here, and the fort at Stanwix, across the river, housed a cavalry regiment and was the largest on the wall. Very little of the stone wall survives in the city, much of it having been robbed for buildings, but the line of the wall and vallum can be traced in places, and the Tullie House museum tells the story of Roman Carlisle with excellent displays.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66, about halfway. Next is Bewcastle Roman fort.
Bewcastle is one of the loneliest places in Cumbria, and it has been for a very long time. Roman soldiers built an outpost fort here, about ten kilometres north of Hadrian's Wall, on a plateau whose shape the walls followed, giving it an unusual six-sided plan. It was a forward base for scouts watching the tribes beyond the frontier, and it was linked to the Wall at Birdoswald by a road. Later, a medieval castle was built into one corner of the old Roman defences, and its broken walls still stand above the beck.
Read the complete Bewcastle Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bewcastle Roman fort sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 comes up about 152 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Crooks Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Crooks Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 183 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Crooks Roman temporary camp. Next is back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 242 km.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t → Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → Crooks Roman temporary camp is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Crooks Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → Bewcastle Roman fort is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bewcastle Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → back through Crooks Roman temporary camp is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Crooks Roman temporary camp → back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.