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 Carlisle it runs 340 km to Carlisle; allow about 5 h 11 of riding. It goes by way of Swarthy Hill North tower 20b, Corbridge and back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
East of Carlisle the Eden valley opens into a wide, quiet plain of dairy farms, hedges and red sandstone villages, and Hadrian's Wall crosses it with very little to show. Here the Wall was not built of stone at first. West of the river Irthing the Romans made it out of turf, a sloping rampart of cut sods with timber milecastles, and only later rebuilt it in stone. What survives in the fields around Laversdale is mostly a line of banks and ditches, visible as a ripple in the grass and in the pattern of the hedges, and the road that you follow probably owes its direction to the old frontier. It is a fine place to understand that the Wall was a system, not just a fence: a ditch, a barrier, a patrol road and a back ditch called the Vallum.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd is where the day begins. Next is Swarthy Hill North tower 20b.
Along the Cumbrian coast between Silloth and Maryport, the Roman frontier did not end when Hadrian's stone Wall reached Bowness. A chain of milefortlets and towers continued down the shore, watching the Solway for raiders arriving by boat, and Tower 20b near Swarthy Hill is one of them. It was a small stone watchtower, probably manned by a handful of soldiers, and what remains is a low outline in the turf above the beach. You come for the context and the view across the water rather than for the masonry.
Read the complete Swarthy Hill North tower 20b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Swarthy Hill North tower 20b comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 170 km into the recorded legs you reach Corbridge. Next is back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Swarthy Hill North tower 20b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd. That is the ride.
Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd → Swarthy Hill North tower 20b is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Swarthy Hill North tower 20b → Corbridge is 113 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Corbridge → back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b is 114 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b → Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.