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.
316 km from Carlisle to Carlisle, about 4 h 51 of riding. It goes by way of Rise How tower 25a, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal and back through Rise How tower 25a. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
There is an old joke that Hadrian's Wall is easiest to find where it has gone. In the western suburbs of Carlisle it has, for the most part, vanished under houses, roads and fields, and what remains is a faint line of ditch and bank that only becomes obvious when you stand in the right place. The vallum, the great earthwork that ran south of the Wall, is one of those traces. It was a flat-bottomed ditch with a mound on either side, a sort of military boundary zone that kept civilians, and raiders, from the soldiers' side of the frontier. It was dug on the orders of the emperor Hadrian, who came to Britain in AD 122, and it is one of the more puzzling pieces of Roman engineering.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between Drawdykes Ca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between Drawdykes Ca is where the day begins. Next is Rise How tower 25a.
Hadrian's Wall does not simply stop at the Solway. Beyond Bowness, the Romans extended their frontier down the Cumbrian coast with a chain of milefortlets and towers, watching the shore against raiders crossing from what is now south-west Scotland. Rise How tower 25a is one of them, on the low cliffs just south of Maryport near Flimby, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Little is visible above ground, but standing here and looking out over the water, you can see why they bothered.
Read the complete Rise How tower 25a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rise How tower 25a comes up about 48 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 157 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal. Next is back through Rise How tower 25a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rise How tower 25a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rise How tower 25a, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall vallum between Drawdykes Ca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between Drawdykes Ca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hadrian's Wall vallum between Drawdykes Ca. That is the ride.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between Drawdykes Ca → Rise How tower 25a is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rise How tower 25a → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → back through Rise How tower 25a is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Rise How tower 25a → Hadrian's Wall vallum between Drawdykes Ca is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.