Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
65 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 06
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Wallsend it runs 65 km to Wallsend; allow about 1 h 06 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9. The line favours views over speed.
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 9.
2. 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 comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632.
3. Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
East of Hexham, the Roman frontier crosses gentler country, a rolling landscape of fields, hedges and small woods north of the Tyne valley. Here the Wall itself has mostly disappeared, its stones long since recycled into farmhouses, field walls and the eighteenth-century Military Road that runs along its line. But the vallum, the broad ditch with mounds on either side that marked the southern edge of the military zone, survives in places as a clear earthwork across the fields, and walkers on the Hadrian's Wall Path follow it for miles. This section is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further west.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9.
4. back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 to Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is 19 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 Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.