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.
A 261 km round trip from Carlisle - roughly 3 h 46 in the saddle. The stops in between: Bewcastle Roman fort, Grindon School Roman temporary camp, Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank and Roman camp. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grindon School Roman temporary camp.
Marching soldiers did not sleep in the open. Every night on campaign, a Roman army dug a ditch and threw up a rampart around its tents, and the faint outlines of these temporary camps are scattered across Northumberland, some dating from the conquest of the north, others from the building of the Wall. The camp near the old Grindon school, close to the Stanegate a little north of Haydon Bridge, is one of these. You will need a good map and a low sun to make out its banks.
Read the complete Grindon School Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Grindon School Roman temporary camp. Next is Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
The road west from Heddon-on-the-Wall runs straight as a ruler, and there is a reason for that. The B6318, known locally as the Military Road, was built by General Wade's engineers after the Jacobite rising of 1745 so that troops could move quickly between Newcastle and Carlisle, and for long stretches they laid it right on top of Hadrian's Wall, using the Roman stones as foundation. At Oatens Bank, just beyond Heddon, you ride with the Wall beneath your tyres and the ditch and vallum still visible in the fields beside you, two thousand years of frontier engineering compressed into a few metres.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank, about halfway. Next is Roman camp.
Hadrian's Wall in its central section does what a good border should: it picks the best ridge in the country and sits on top of it. The wall was begun in AD 122, under the emperor Hadrian, and it runs for about eighty Roman miles, roughly 117 kilometres, from the Tyne to the Solway. In the middle stretch, between Haydon Bridge and Haltwhistle, it follows a line of crags called the Whin Sill, a hard, dark volcanic rock that breaks the Northumbrian moors into a series of cliffs, so that the wall looks as if it grew out of the stone.
Read the complete Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman camp sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank comes up about 165 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grindon School Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grindon School Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 193 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grindon School Roman temporary camp. Next is back through Bewcastle Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bewcastle Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bewcastle Roman fort, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 261 km.
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 → Grindon School Roman temporary camp is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grindon School Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → Roman camp is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman camp → back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → back through Grindon School Roman temporary camp is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grindon School Roman temporary camp → back through Bewcastle Roman fort is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bewcastle Roman fort → 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.