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.
186 km from Carlisle to Carlisle, about 2 h 55 of riding. It goes by way of Campfield, Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b, Parton Roman fort and back through Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
West of Carlisle, Hadrian's Wall heads out across flat farmland toward the Solway Firth, and the closer you get to the estuary, the quieter it becomes. Along this stretch, the wall itself has largely gone, robbed for stone over the centuries, but the vallum, the wide ditch with its mounds that ran behind it, can still be traced in places, and the line passes the sites of Roman forts and the civilian settlements that grew up around them. At Stanwix, now a suburb on the north bank of the Eden, stood the largest fort on the whole wall, home to a cavalry regiment of a thousand men. Further west, at Burgh by Sands, another fort lies beneath the village and its fortified church, built partly with Roman stone.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Campfield comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b.
When people talk about Hadrian's Wall they usually mean the stone barrier across the neck of England, but the system continued down the Cumbrian coast for dozens of kilometres, as a chain of small forts, called milefortlets, and watchtowers facing the Irish Sea. Tower 16b, at Mawbray, was one of those lookouts, standing on the low, windswept coast between Silloth and Maryport. The Romans feared raids by sea, and a line of towers gave warning along the coast, with signals passing from one to the next.
Read the complete Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b. Next is Parton Roman fort.
Hadrian's Wall stopped at Bowness-on-Solway, but the Roman frontier did not. Down the Cumbrian coast, the army built a chain of forts, milefortlets and towers to watch the sea and stop raiders slipping round the end of the Wall, and Parton, just north of Whitehaven, was one of them. The fort is known from excavations and records rather than standing remains, and the coastal defences as a whole are included in the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Standing on the cliffs above the sea, you can see why the Romans worried: across the water lie the Isle of Man and, on clear days, the hills of Scotland.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Parton Roman fort, about halfway. Next is back through Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Campfield.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Campfield write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Campfield comes up about 160 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl closes the day.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl → Campfield is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Campfield → Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b → Parton Roman fort is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parton Roman fort → back through Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mawbray Sandpit tower 16b → back through Campfield is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Campfield → Hadrian's Wall vallum between the dismantl is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.