Hadrian's Wall between the M6 motorway and and Durham Castle and Cathedral
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
241 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 35
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 Carlisle it runs 241 km to Carlisle; allow about 3 h 35 of riding. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel, The Roman fort, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 and Durham Castle and Cathedral. The line favours views over speed.
Scenic road chapters
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Durham Castle and Cathedral
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 36 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
Length
36 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hadrian's Wall between the M6 motorway and
The M6 motorway comes up the length of England and ends at Carlisle, only a few kilometres from the line of Hadrian's Wall, a fair joke for a road that also moves people from one side of a border to the other. The stretch of Wall between the motorway and the suburbs of Stanwix is a quiet one, where the line has to be guessed at from low earthworks and a few modern signs. Junction 43 sits just east of the city and serves the A69 towards Newcastle and the Roman Wall country, while the last junctions carry on to the north of the city and the road to Scotland.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall between the M6 motorway and is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
2. Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
Around Haltwhistle the wall country becomes the landscape everyone imagines: the Whin Sill, a long ridge of hard volcanic dolerite, rears up in a series of cliffs facing north, and the Romans used it as a ready-made rampart, running their stone wall along the very top. Between the crags and the road the vallum ditch runs across the fields as a broad, clear trench, and from any high point you can see the whole military system laid out: crag, wall, road and ditch side by side.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Roman fort.
3. The Roman fort
Down by the North Tyne, where the river runs fast over stones under a canopy of trees, a Roman cavalry regiment once kept its horses and its very comfortable bath house. Chesters, the fort the Romans called Cilurnum, sat astride Hadrian's Wall near the village of Walwick, guarding the bridge that carried the wall across the river. It is one of the best preserved forts along the wall, with the headquarters building, the commander's house and the bath house still standing to knee or shoulder height, and the remains of the bridge abutment visible on the far bank.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach The Roman fort. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9.
4. Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9, about halfway. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
5. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 241 km.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall between the M6 motorway and to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
Hadrian's Wall between the M6 motorway and → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel to The Roman fort
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → The Roman fort is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Roman fort to Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
The Roman fort → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 to Durham Castle and Cathedral
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 to back through The Roman fort
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → back through The Roman fort is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Roman fort to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
back through The Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel to Hadrian's Wall between the M6 motorway and
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Hadrian's Wall between the M6 motorway and is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.