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 Greenhead it runs 62 km to Greenhead; allow about 1 h 06 of riding. The stops in between: Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal and back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags. The line favours views over speed.
Of all the places where Hadrian's Wall still behaves like a wall, Walltown is one of the most dramatic. The masonry rides the crest of the Great Whin Sill, a sheet of hard dark dolerite that pushed up through the surrounding rock about three hundred million years ago and then weathered into a line of cliffs facing north. The Roman engineers simply put their wall on top of the cliff, so the stones rise and fall with the crags, dipping into gaps the locals call nicks and climbing out again. Stand up there on a windy day and look north towards the empty country of Northumberland and you understand exactly why they chose the line.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas is where the day begins. Next is Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags.
The Wall needed millions of dressed stones, and the Romans quarried them close to where they were needed. On Queen's Crags, a ridge of sandstone north of the Wall near Housesteads, they left a calling card: an inscription cut into the rock face, one of several known Roman quarry inscriptions along the frontier, recording a soldier or unit at work. It is a small, weathered thing, hard to find without directions, but it is a direct link to the men who cut the stone for the Wall.
Read the complete Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal.
North of Hexham, where the land rises above the Tyne valley, the B6318, the military road built in the eighteenth century partly on top of Hadrian's Wall, runs straight across open country, and here, near the hamlet of St Oswald's, the remains of the wall and the vallum, the great earthwork that ran along its southern side, are clearly visible in the fields. The vallum was a broad ditch flanked by mounds, marking a military zone, and its scale still impresses. This stretch is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 30 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal. Next is back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas. That is the ride.
Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas → Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags → Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.