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.
A 289 km round trip from Greenhead - roughly 4 h 50 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari, Skinburness, Burrow Walls Roman fort and Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house. The line favours views over speed.
If you only have time for one stretch of Hadrian's Wall, make it the central section between Haltwhistle and Housesteads. Here the Wall runs along the top of the Whin Sill, a long ridge of hard volcanic rock that forms a natural cliff facing north, and the stone curtain rides the crests like a rollercoaster, dipping into gaps and climbing again. Built from AD 122 on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian, it stretched about seventy-three miles from coast to coast, with milecastles, turrets and forts along its length. The UNESCO listing covers it as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari.
Carlisle has been a frontier city for nearly two thousand years, and the vallum that runs across its northern edge is part of the reason. North of the River Eden, in the suburb of Stanwix, stood the largest fort on the whole of Hadrian's Wall, home to a cavalry regiment a thousand strong. The fort lies under the streets and the churchyard now, but the line of the Wall and its rear earthwork, the vallum, can be traced across the fields and gardens to the west, and walkers on the national trail follow it out of the city towards the Solway.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Skinburness.
Skinburness is a scatter of houses at the tip of a shingle spit on the Solway coast of Cumbria, just north of Silloth, looking across the wide, shimmering estuary to the hills of Scotland. When the tide goes out, the Solway empties into vast expanses of sand and mud, with channels winding through them, and the light changes constantly as clouds race overhead. On clear evenings, the sunsets over the Scottish hills, with the dark bulk of Criffel opposite, are spectacular.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Skinburness. Next is Burrow Walls Roman fort.
On the northern edge of Workington, near the mouth of the river Derwent, a fragment of stone wall stands alone in a field, a jagged piece of masonry rising above the grass. It is part of Burrow Walls, a Roman fort that guarded the Cumbrian coast, one of the chain of defences that extended from the western end of Hadrian's Wall down the shore to watch for raiders crossing from Scotland and Ireland. Much of the fort's stone was reused in a medieval building on the site, and what survives today is modest, but it is part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site and has a lonely charm, with views over the sea and the river.
Read the complete Burrow Walls Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burrow Walls Roman fort, about halfway. Next is Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house.
Walls Castle is the odd name for a Roman bath house, and the building still stands to a height of about four metres, one of the tallest Roman structures in northern England. It stood outside the fort of Glannoventa at Ravenglass, a harbour station at the meeting of three rivers, the Irt, the Mite and the Esk, and in the dry shelter of the dunes it has survived because its walls were thick and well built. You can walk around it on a short path from the village, and see niches and a doorway in the thick walls. The fort itself lies mostly under farmland and the railway.
Read the complete Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house sits at 158 km, about halfway. Next is back through Burrow Walls Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Burrow Walls Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Burrow Walls Roman fort comes up about 186 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Skinburness.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 219 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Skinburness. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 289 km.
Hadrian's Wall → Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari → Skinburness is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Skinburness → Burrow Walls Roman fort is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burrow Walls Roman fort → Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house → back through Burrow Walls Roman fort is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Burrow Walls Roman fort → back through Skinburness is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Skinburness → back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall vallum between the boundari → Hadrian's Wall is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.