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.
376 km from Greenhead to Greenhead, about 4 h 59 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f, Durham Castle and Cathedral and Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 35 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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 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.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f.
Here, at the western edge of Newcastle, the Roman frontier starts to escape the city. Wall mile 8 lies around Newburn and Throckley, with Blaydon across the Tyne and the suburbs thinning into fields as you head west. The masonry itself has mostly vanished under roads, houses and farmland, but the line of the Wall and the great earthwork of the Vallum to its south can still be followed in hummocks, ditches and the occasional consolidated stretch of stone, most famously a little further west at Heddon-on-the-Wall, where a long run survives at nearly its full original width.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f. Next is 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.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durham Castle and Cathedral, about halfway. Next is Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of.
Fountains Abbey is the largest monastic ruin in Britain, and it stands in a valley so green and quiet that it hardly seems real. In 1132, a group of Benedictine monks, dissatisfied with the lax life at York, left their abbey and sought a stricter rule, and with the help of the archbishop, they settled in this remote valley beside the river Skell. They became Cistercians, and over the next four centuries the abbey grew rich on sheep and wool, building a huge church, a vaulted cellarium, and a tower that still rises above the ruins. Henry VIII dissolved the abbey in 1539, and the roofs were stripped for lead.
Read the complete Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of sits at 203 km, about halfway. Next is back through Durham Castle and Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral comes up about 285 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 319 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal, 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.
The route ends here after 376 km.
Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of → back through Durham Castle and Cathedral is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.