Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp and Crooks Roman temporary camp

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp

   Limestone Corner is the most northerly point on Hadrian's Wall, and it is famous for a job left unfinished. The Romans dug a defensive ditch in front of the Wall along most of its length, but here they hit a band of hard whinstone, and after cutting some of the huge blocks free and splitting others with wedges, they simply gave up. The blocks still lie where they were left, some with the holes for the wedges visible, nearly nineteen centuries later. Nearby, the earthworks of a Roman temporary camp, where troops on the move once pitched their tents behind a ditch and bank, are part of the same Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.

   Read the complete Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Vindolanda.

2. 2. Vindolanda

   Vindolanda is the place where the Romans on the northern frontier start to sound like people. The fort stood on the Stanegate road, just south of the wall, and for several centuries it was rebuilt again and again, each new fort laid on top of the last. The damp, airless soil preserved wood and leather, and in 1973 archaeologists found thin wooden writing tablets covered in ink, letters written by soldiers, officers and their families in about AD 100. They are the oldest handwritten documents found in Britain.

   Read the complete Vindolanda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Vindolanda comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Crooks Roman temporary camp.

3. 3. Crooks Roman temporary camp

   The Roman army on the march built a camp every night: a rectangle of ditch and rampart, with tents inside, defended by sentries. These temporary camps, often used only once or for a short campaign, left faint traces in the landscape, and many have been found from the air in the north of England. Crooks, near Haltwhistle and Greenhead, in the area where Northumberland meets Cumbria, is one of several temporary camps along the line of Hadrian's Wall, probably used by the soldiers who built the Wall in the second century.

   Read the complete Crooks Roman temporary camp write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach Crooks Roman temporary camp. Next is back through Vindolanda.

4. 4. back through Vindolanda

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Vindolanda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Vindolanda, late in the day. Next is Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp.

5. 5. Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Limestone Corner 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 Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.