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 98 km to Newburn; allow about 1 h 41 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. 31 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Nine Roman miles west of the wall's starting point at Wallsend, the frontier is already climbing out of the Tyne valley, and here on the edge of Newburn and Heddon-on-the-Wall you can still find it in the fields. Emperor Hadrian ordered the wall in AD 122, a stone barrier across the narrowest part of northern Britain from the Tyne to the Solway, and behind it the army dug the Vallum, a broad ditch flanked by earth mounds that marked the military zone from the civilian south. On this stretch the Vallum is often easier to read than the wall itself, a long shallow trough running through the grass, especially when the evening light comes in low and picks out every bump.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2.
Hadrian's Wall begins, or ends, in a suburb of Newcastle, and it is a surprise to find it there. Wallsend, on the north bank of the Tyne, is the site of the fort of Segedunum, the eastern terminus of the wall, now surrounded by terraced houses and a metro station. A museum with a viewing tower overlooks the excavated remains, and visitors can walk along a section of reconstructed wall and see a full-size reconstruction of a Roman bathhouse.
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 15 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 in wall mile 9.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9. That is the ride.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 is 15 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 34 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 34 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 in wall mile 9 is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.