Why this ride
A 61 km round trip from Gateshead - roughly 1 h 03 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 61 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 03
- 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.
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2
Most people picture Hadrian's Wall striding across lonely Northumberland crags. Wall mile 2 is the other end of the story: an urban stretch in the east of Newcastle upon Tyne, where the wall ran from the fort at Wallsend, Segedunum, westwards along the north bank of the Tyne towards the bridge and fort at Pons Aelius, beneath today's city centre. Very little of the wall itself is visible here; terraced houses, roads and shipyards have long since swallowed it. But you are standing on the first miles of a frontier that once ran coast to coast for about eighty Roman miles.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10.
2. Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10
Heddon-on-the-Wall is aptly named. Just west of Newcastle, on a ridge above the Tyne, the village sits right on the line of Hadrian's Wall, and at its eastern edge is the longest surviving stretch of the broad wall still visible in the east, a section of thick, solid masonry about a hundred metres long, complete with the foundations of a medieval kiln built into it. Wall mile 10 is the stretch around here, counting westward from Wallsend, and it is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. South of the wall, the vallum, a huge ditch flanked by earth mounds, can still be traced across the fields.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 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.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 28 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 10.
4. back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2.
5. Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 to Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 is 12 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 10
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 to Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 10 → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 2 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.