Why this ride
From Annan it runs 319 km to Annan; allow about 4 h 42 of riding. It goes by way of Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp, The English Lake District and back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp. It strings together lakeside roads.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 319 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 42
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou
The vallum is the strangest part of Hadrian's Wall, and a good place to see it is on the flat ground near Bowness-on-Solway. It is a broad, deep ditch with a flat bottom, flanked by two mounds of earth set back from the edge, and it ran along the south side of the wall for its whole length. Nobody is certain what it was for, but the best theory is that it marked the rear boundary of a military zone, a line that civilians could cross only at controlled points, which fits with the idea of the wall as a border of customs and security as well as defence.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou is where the day begins. Next is Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp.
2. Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp
Sunny Rigg is a name that sounds like a farm, and that is more or less what it is, a stretch of rough pasture on the high ground just north of Haltwhistle, in Northumberland, where archaeologists have found the faint outline of a Roman temporary camp. These camps were built by marching armies at the end of each day's journey, with a ditch and a rampart thrown up around the tents to protect them overnight, and they were abandoned the next morning. Most survive only as shallow earthworks or crop marks seen from the air, which is why the places are so evocative: they record a single night of an army's life on the march, two thousand years ago.
Read the complete Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp comes up about 55 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 160 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp.
4. back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp, late in the day. Next is Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou.
5. Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou 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 vallum between the watercou. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou to Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp
Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou → Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp to The English Lake District
Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp → The English Lake District is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The English Lake District to back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp
The English Lake District → back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp to Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou
back through Sunny Rigg 3 Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall vallum between the watercou is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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