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 205 km round trip from Carlisle - roughly 3 h 28 in the saddle. On the way it passes Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields, Parton Roman fort, Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house and back through Parton Roman fort. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 31 km this is Hardknott and Wrynose Passes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Drumburgh is a few farms and a ruined-looking castle at the edge of the Solway marsh, and it is easy to miss, but it sits on the line of Hadrian's Wall where it slides down to the shore at Bowness. The castle was built from the stones of a Roman fort, called Congavata, and that gives a picture of how much of the frontier went into later buildings. The label places us on a stretch of Wall between Fulwood House and the next landmark, with Parton Roman fort on the far side of Cumbria, a reminder that Hadrian's frontier carried on around the coast.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Fulwood House at Bu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between Fulwood House at Bu is where the day begins. Next is Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields.
The Roman frontier did not stop where Hadrian's Wall ended. At Bowness, on the Solway shore, the stone and turf barrier gave out, but a chain of small forts, fortlets and watchtowers continued south along the Cumbrian coast, past Silloth and Maryport to near St Bees, to guard against raiders coming across the water from Scotland and the Irish Sea. Archaeologists still argue about how it worked. Often only a faint platform in a field remains.
Read the complete Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parton Roman fort.
Hadrian's Wall stopped at Bowness-on-Solway, but the Roman frontier did not. Down the Cumbrian coast, the army built a chain of forts, milefortlets and towers to watch the sea and stop raiders slipping round the end of the Wall, and Parton, just north of Whitehaven, was one of them. The fort is known from excavations and records rather than standing remains, and the coastal defences as a whole are included in the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Standing on the cliffs above the sea, you can see why the Romans worried: across the water lie the Isle of Man and, on clear days, the hills of Scotland.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Parton Roman fort. Next is Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house.
Walls Castle is the odd name for a Roman bath house, and the building still stands to a height of about four metres, one of the tallest Roman structures in northern England. It stood outside the fort of Glannoventa at Ravenglass, a harbour station at the meeting of three rivers, the Irt, the Mite and the Esk, and in the dry shelter of the dunes it has survived because its walls were thick and well built. You can walk around it on a short path from the village, and see niches and a doorway in the thick walls. The fort itself lies mostly under farmland and the railway.
Read the complete Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house, about halfway. Next is back through Parton Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Parton Roman fort sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields comes up about 168 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall between Fulwood House at Bu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Fulwood House at Bu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between Fulwood House at Bu closes the day.
Hadrian's Wall between Fulwood House at Bu → Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields → Parton Roman fort is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parton Roman fort → Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house → back through Parton Roman fort is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parton Roman fort → back through Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields → Hadrian's Wall between Fulwood House at Bu is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.