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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 136 km round trip from Newburn - roughly 2 h 10 in the saddle. The stops in between: Corbridge, Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet, Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ and back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
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 Corbridge.
Two thousand years ago, Dere Street, the Roman road heading north into Scotland, crossed the Tyne here, and a town grew up around a supply base just behind Hadrian's Wall. Coria, now called Corbridge Roman Town, was a bustling place with granaries, temples, workshops and a main street, and its remains, managed by English Heritage, are among the most important Roman sites in Britain. The museum displays finds including the Corbridge Hoard, a chest of armour and equipment, and the Corbridge Lion, a sculpture of a lion attacking a stag.
Read the complete Corbridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Corbridge comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
This is the stretch of Hadrian's Wall that everyone pictures: the stone curtain running along the crest of the Whin Sill, a hard dolerite ridge that ends in sheer north-facing crags, with lakes like Crag Lough and Greenlee Lough glinting below. Housesteads fort is close by, clinging to the hillside with its barracks, granaries and famous communal latrines, and the Wall dips and climbs over each crag in a way that seems almost reckless as engineering. The Sycamore Gap tree, which stood in a dip in the ridge for generations, was felled in an act of vandalism in 2023, and the loss is still felt locally.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 47 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
Gilsland is a village with a split personality. The boundary between Northumberland and Cumbria runs right through it, along the Poltross Burn, so the houses on one side are in one county and those on the other in another. Hadrian's Wall runs through it too, and the stretch of Wall, vallum and associated features around the village is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. The Wall here crosses the narrow gorge of the burn and the railway line, with a milecastle right next to the old station.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Corbridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Corbridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Corbridge comes up about 114 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 closes the day.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Corbridge is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Corbridge → Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ → back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → back through Corbridge is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Corbridge → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.