Kirkbride Roman fort and Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kirkbride Roman fort

   The tide turns the Solway Firth into an enormous, shifting plain of sand and water, and the Roman fort at Kirkbride stood at the edge of it. Here, at the western limit of the frontier in the lower Eden valley, the Romans built a fort to guard the crossing of the estuary, and the earthworks show a rectangular platform in a field by the village. The fort belonged to the Wall system, which continued along the coast, and the first thing a visitor realises is how big the view is. On a clear day you can see the Scottish hills across the water, and the ridges of Criffel and Burnswark, and the line of the shore bending away to the west.

   Read the complete Kirkbride Roman fort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kirkbride Roman fort is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary.

2. 2. Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary

   Just outside Carlisle, among hedges and grazing fields, a short protected length of ground marks where Hadrian's Wall once ran between two farm boundaries. That is all the official name means, and the honest truth is that there is very little to see: a gentle bank, perhaps a slight ditch, the alignment of a hedge that follows the Roman line because nobody ever bothered to move it. What makes it worth a pause is the bigger picture. The wall here was heading for the crossing of the River Eden, where it met the fort of Stanwix on the north bank, the biggest fort on the entire frontier, home to an elite cavalry regiment a thousand strong.

   Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd.

3. 3. Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd

   East of Carlisle the Eden valley opens into a wide, quiet plain of dairy farms, hedges and red sandstone villages, and Hadrian's Wall crosses it with very little to show. Here the Wall was not built of stone at first. West of the river Irthing the Romans made it out of turf, a sloping rampart of cut sods with timber milecastles, and only later rebuilt it in stone. What survives in the fields around Laversdale is mostly a line of banks and ditches, visible as a ripple in the grass and in the pattern of the hedges, and the road that you follow probably owes its direction to the old frontier. It is a fine place to understand that the Wall was a system, not just a fence: a ditch, a barrier, a patrol road and a back ditch called the Vallum.

   Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall between the road to Laversd. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary.

4. 4. back through Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary 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 between the field boundary, late in the day. Next is Kirkbride Roman fort.

5. 5. Kirkbride Roman fort

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kirkbride Roman fort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Kirkbride Roman fort. That is the ride.