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.
97 km from Newburn to Newburn, about 1 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2, Durham Castle and Cathedral and back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 30 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 Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2.
Most people picture Hadrian's Wall striding across lonely Northumberland crags. Wall mile 2 is the other end of the story: an urban stretch in the east of Newcastle upon Tyne, where the wall ran from the fort at Wallsend, Segedunum, westwards along the north bank of the Tyne towards the bridge and fort at Pons Aelius, beneath today's city centre. Very little of the wall itself is visible here; terraced houses, roads and shipyards have long since swallowed it. But you are standing on the first miles of a frontier that once ran coast to coast for about eighty Roman miles.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
The river Wear loops around a rocky peninsula in a tight horseshoe, and on top of it, rising above the trees, stand Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, one of the most impressive views in Britain. The Normans built both in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, soon after the Conquest, as a statement of power in the turbulent north. The cathedral is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, with massive columns carved with zigzags and spirals, and its stone rib vaults are among the earliest of their kind in Europe, pointing the way to Gothic architecture. Together, castle and cathedral were listed by UNESCO in 1986.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Durham Castle and Cathedral. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2, 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.
Back at Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t. That is the ride.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum from Throckley t is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.