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 238 km round trip from Carlisle - roughly 3 h 39 in the saddle. The stops in between: Roman signal station on Mains Rigg, Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &, Rudchester Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel. 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.
Carlisle was the western hub of Hadrian's Wall, and on its northern edge, at Stanwix, stood the largest fort on the whole frontier. Known to the Romans as Uxelodunum, it held a cavalry regiment about a thousand strong, and its commander was one of the most important officers on the wall. Little of it is visible now, since the fort lies under the streets and gardens of a suburb, but the line of the wall can be traced through the town, in parts of the pavement and the shape of the streets, and a short surviving section lies in a quiet corner near the river Eden.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav is where the day begins. Next is Roman signal station on Mains Rigg.
On a low ridge south of the Wall, near the village of Low Row, the foundations of a Roman stone tower sit in a field with a commanding view up and down the Irthing valley. The signal station on Mains Rigg belonged to the system of the Stanegate, the road that ran from Corbridge to Carlisle before the Wall was built, and it allowed messages to be passed between forts by fire, smoke or flags. From here, on a clear day, you can see for miles: west to Carlisle, east toward the Pennines and north over the Wall.
Read the complete Roman signal station on Mains Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &.
Of all the Roman sites along Hadrian's Wall, Carrawburgh may be the most mysterious. The fort itself, called Brocolitia, is largely unexcavated, a grassy platform beside the Military Road, but just below it, in a boggy hollow, stands the reconstructed outline of a small temple of Mithras, the soldiers' god, whose cult was popular among the Roman army. The temple was excavated in 1949, and its three altars, now replaced by replicas, the originals being in the Great North Museum in Newcastle, were dedicated by commanders of the garrison. Nearby, a spring dedicated to the water goddess Coventina yielded an astonishing hoard of coins, altars and offerings when it was excavated in the nineteenth century, around thirteen thousand coins in all.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &. Next is Rudchester Roman fort.
Rudchester, known to the Romans as Vindobala, was the fourth fort along Hadrian's Wall counting from Wallsend at the eastern end. It sat astride the Wall on high ground west of Newcastle, with a garrison of around five hundred soldiers. Today, there is nothing to see above ground but fields and the bumps and hollows of buried walls, with a farm nearby. Excavations in the twentieth century found traces of a temple to Mithras just outside the fort, one of several on the Wall, where soldiers worshipped the god in a dark, cave-like building.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rudchester Roman fort, about halfway. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
Just west of Chollerford the road climbs onto higher ground and the Wall begins to show itself, first as a hump in the fields, then as a ditch and earthwork running alongside the tarmac. This is the central sector of Hadrian's Wall, built from the 120s on the orders of the emperor Hadrian to mark the northern edge of Roman Britain, and the stretch around Carrawburgh is one of the most atmospheric. The vallum, a broad ditch flanked by mounds on the southern side of the Wall, is especially clear here, and it shows the Roman frontier was not just a wall but a whole military zone, with forts, milecastles, turrets, roads and earthworks.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel sits at 140 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rudchester Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rudchester Roman fort comes up about 150 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 180 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &. Next is back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman signal station on Mains Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 238 km.
Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav → Roman signal station on Mains Rigg is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg → Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & → Rudchester Roman fort is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rudchester Roman fort → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → back through Rudchester Roman fort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rudchester Roman fort → back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & → back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roman signal station on Mains Rigg → Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.