Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a and Parton Roman fort
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
229 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 38
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.
229 km from Haltwhistle to Haltwhistle, about 3 h 38 of riding. On the way it passes Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be, Parton Roman fort and back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a → Drumburgh Roman fort and
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 62 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
Length
55 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a
Haltwhistle Burn is a small stream that cuts down toward the South Tyne just east of Haltwhistle, and the name is one of those wonderful northern English mouthfuls that seems to have been in use forever. Here, beside the burn, the Romans left a cluster of temporary camps, several overlapping enclosures that show how often armies returned to the same convenient ground. Alongside them lies a fort on the Stanegate, the military road that predates Hadrian's Wall. The camps are low earthworks in pasture, best appreciated in slanting light and with a little imagination.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a is where the day begins. Next is Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be.
2. Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be
The small Roman fort at Drumburgh sat on a low rise above the Solway marshes, guarding a stretch of Hadrian's Wall where the frontier ran along the edge of the firth towards its western end at Bowness. Nothing much survives of the fort itself, but its stones did not go far. Drumburgh Castle, a fortified farmhouse built in the sixteenth century by the Dacre family, is clearly made from reused Roman masonry, and you can still pick out dressed blocks and even the odd carved fragment set into its walls.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be comes up about 55 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parton Roman fort.
3. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a to Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be
Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a → Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be to Parton Roman fort
Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be → Parton Roman fort is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parton Roman fort to back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be
Parton Roman fort → back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be to Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a
back through Drumburgh Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall be → Haltwhistle Burn Roman temporary camps 2 a is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.