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 Wallsend it runs 131 km to Wallsend; allow about 2 h 00 of riding. It goes by way of Rudchester Roman fort, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal, The vallum between the road to Steel Rigg and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 is where the day begins. Next is Rudchester Roman fort.
Rudchester, known to the Romans as Vindobala, was the fourth fort along Hadrian's Wall counting from Wallsend at the eastern end. It sat astride the Wall on high ground west of Newcastle, with a garrison of around five hundred soldiers. Today, there is nothing to see above ground but fields and the bumps and hollows of buried walls, with a farm nearby. Excavations in the twentieth century found traces of a temple to Mithras just outside the fort, one of several on the Wall, where soldiers worshipped the god in a dark, cave-like building.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rudchester Roman fort comes up about 22 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 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal. Next is The vallum between the road to Steel Rigg.
Steel Rigg is the place everyone photographs. The crag rises steeply from the road, with the Wall running along its top and dipping into a gap known as Sycamore Gap, where a single tree stood for generations in a perfect V of the hills, until it was felled one night in September 2023. The loss caused shock across the country, and the stump now sprouts new shoots. The vallum, the great ditch and mounds south of the Wall, runs beside the road at the foot of the crags, and here it is clearly visible, a long straight hollow in the field, with the mounds standing on either side.
Read the complete The vallum between the road to Steel Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The vallum between the road to Steel Rigg, about halfway. 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 sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rudchester Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rudchester Roman fort comes up about 109 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 closes the day.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 → Rudchester Roman fort is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rudchester Roman fort → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → The vallum between the road to Steel Rigg is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The vallum between the road to Steel Rigg → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → back through Rudchester Roman fort is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rudchester Roman fort → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 0 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.