Why this ride
A 334 km round trip from Haltwhistle - roughly 4 h 21 in the saddle. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9, Campfield and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp and Campfield
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 334 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 21
- 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. Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, a claim measured, by one method or another, from the farthest tips of the island, and it does sit in the narrow waist of the country, between the North Sea and the Irish Sea. The town, with about four thousand people, lies in the South Tyne valley, just south of Hadrian's Wall, and it is a good base for exploring the central section of the frontier.
Read the complete Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9.
2. Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
Nine Roman miles west of the wall's starting point at Wallsend, the frontier is already climbing out of the Tyne valley, and here on the edge of Newburn and Heddon-on-the-Wall you can still find it in the fields. Emperor Hadrian ordered the wall in AD 122, a stone barrier across the narrowest part of northern Britain from the Tyne to the Solway, and behind it the army dug the Vallum, a broad ditch flanked by earth mounds that marked the military zone from the civilian south. On this stretch the Vallum is often easier to read than the wall itself, a long shallow trough running through the grass, especially when the evening light comes in low and picks out every bump.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Campfield.
3. 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
about 166 km into the recorded legs you reach Campfield. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9.
4. back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9, late in the day. Next is Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp.
5. Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Haltwhistle Burn 1 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 at Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp to Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 to Campfield
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Campfield is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Campfield to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9
Campfield → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 to Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 9 → Haltwhistle Burn 1 Roman temporary camp is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.