Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 and Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
120 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 50
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 120 km round trip from Wallsend - roughly 1 h 50 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal and Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0
Wall mile zero is where Hadrian's Wall began, or ended, depending on which way you are riding, and it is in the most unlikely setting you could imagine: Wallsend, on the north bank of the Tyne, among terraced streets and the cranes of what was once one of the great shipbuilding rivers of the world. The town's name says it all. Here stood Segedunum, the easternmost fort of the wall, and its foundations have been laid bare beside the road, with a viewing tower that lets you see the whole plan at once, barracks, headquarters and gates, like a diagram on the ground.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f comes up 17 km in. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630.
3. Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630
Out at the eastern end of the frontier, the Wall leaves the moors behind and runs through gentle farmland toward Newcastle, and most of what survives here is not stone but earth: the vallum, a broad ditch flanked by banks that the Romans dug just south of the Wall along almost its entire length. Between the Tyne and the Military Road, near Heddon-on-the-Wall and Rudchester, the vallum can be traced in the fields as a long hollow, and the Wall itself lies largely under the road or as low courses in the grass. Its purpose is still debated, but most scholars see it as a boundary marking the military zone, controlling who could approach the Wall.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
34 km in you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal.
4. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal, about halfway. Next is Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
5. Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet
This is the stretch of Hadrian's Wall that everyone pictures: the stone curtain running along the crest of the Whin Sill, a hard dolerite ridge that ends in sheer north-facing crags, with lakes like Crag Lough and Greenlee Lough glinting below. Housesteads fort is close by, clinging to the hillside with its barracks, granaries and famous communal latrines, and the Wall dips and climbs over each crag in a way that seems almost reckless as engineering. The Sycamore Gap tree, which stood in a dip in the ridge for generations, was felled in an act of vandalism in 2023, and the loss is still felt locally.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 120 km.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 to Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630 to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal to Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630 to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B630 → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f is 18 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 to Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 8 f → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.