Why this ride
From Greenhead it runs 293 km to Greenhead; allow about 4 h 23 of riding. The stops in between: Campfield, The English Lake District and back through Campfield. Lakes are the scenery here.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hadrian's Wall and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 293 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 23
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Campfield → The English Lake District
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 71 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 85 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hadrian's Wall
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall is where the day begins. Next is Campfield.
2. Campfield
Out on the Solway coast west of Carlisle, the land flattens into salt marsh, peat bog and wide tidal sands, and the sky takes over. Campfield Marsh, near Bowness-on-Solway, is a nature reserve run by the RSPB, a mix of salt marsh, wet grassland and raised bog, and in winter it fills with tens of thousands of geese, barnacle and pink-footed, arriving from the Arctic, along with waders that feed on the mud at low tide. Across the firth, the town of Annan and the Scottish hills are visible on a clear day.
Read the complete Campfield write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Campfield comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is The English Lake District.
3. The English Lake District
Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud round here, and anybody who has ridden the Lake District on a wet bank holiday will understand the appeal of being lonely. The English Lake District, listed by UNESCO in 2017 as a cultural landscape, is a compact knot of mountains, lakes and valleys in Cumbria, shaped by glaciers and then by centuries of sheep farming, slate quarrying and, from the late eighteenth century, by poets, painters and tourists who came looking for the sublime.
Read the complete The English Lake District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Campfield.
4. back through Campfield
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Campfield write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Campfield, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall.
5. Hadrian's Wall
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall 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. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall to Campfield
Hadrian's Wall → Campfield is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Campfield to The English Lake District
Campfield → The English Lake District is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The English Lake District to back through Campfield
The English Lake District → back through Campfield is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Campfield to Hadrian's Wall
back through Campfield → Hadrian's Wall is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.