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 226 km round trip from Carlisle - roughly 3 h 07 in the saddle. On the way it passes Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &, Durham Castle and Cathedral and back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 61 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
On the eastern edge of Carlisle, where the M6 motorway sweeps north towards Scotland, the line of Hadrian's Wall crosses the fields and housing estates in a way that is barely visible. Yet the vallum, the great ditch the Romans dug south of the Wall, can still be traced here as a slight dip in the ground, and this stretch between the motorway and the outskirts of the city is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. It takes some imagination, but standing here you are on the line that marked the edge of the empire for nearly three hundred years.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the M6 motor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the M6 motor is where the day begins. Next is Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &.
Of all the Roman sites along Hadrian's Wall, Carrawburgh may be the most mysterious. The fort itself, called Brocolitia, is largely unexcavated, a grassy platform beside the Military Road, but just below it, in a boggy hollow, stands the reconstructed outline of a small temple of Mithras, the soldiers' god, whose cult was popular among the Roman army. The temple was excavated in 1949, and its three altars, now replaced by replicas, the originals being in the Great North Museum in Newcastle, were dedicated by commanders of the garrison. Nearby, a spring dedicated to the water goddess Coventina yielded an astonishing hoard of coins, altars and offerings when it was excavated in the nineteenth century, around thirteen thousand coins in all.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
The river Wear loops around a rocky peninsula in a tight horseshoe, and on top of it, rising above the trees, stand Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, one of the most impressive views in Britain. The Normans built both in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, soon after the Conquest, as a statement of power in the turbulent north. The cathedral is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, with massive columns carved with zigzags and spirals, and its stone rib vaults are among the earliest of their kind in Europe, pointing the way to Gothic architecture. Together, castle and cathedral were listed by UNESCO in 1986.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 113 km into the recorded legs you reach Durham Castle and Cathedral. Next is back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall vallum between the M6 motor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the M6 motor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hadrian's Wall vallum between the M6 motor. That is the ride.
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the M6 motor → Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & → Hadrian's Wall vallum between the M6 motor is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.