CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Greenhead it runs 68 km to Greenhead; allow about 1 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Cawfields Roman temporary camp, Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp and back through Cawfields Roman temporary camp. The line favours views over speed.
Where Cumbria meets Northumberland in the valley of the river Irthing, the Wall climbs out of a wooded gorge on to open ground, and a Roman road called the Maiden Way ran north from the Wall towards Bewcastle and south towards Kirkby Thore, linking the frontier to the supply routes of the interior.
Read the complete Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S is where the day begins. Next is Cawfields Roman temporary camp.
Cawfields is a spot where Hadrian's Wall shows its best side. The Wall runs along the top of the Whin Sill, a hard volcanic dolerite ridge, and at Cawfields it follows a steep edge above a flooded quarry, with a milecastle, number 42, sitting in a dip and clear stone steps in its entrance. The quarry was cut into the crag in the nineteenth century, and the lake it left is a popular picnic spot. The temporary camp of the label lies nearby, a faint earthwork from the days of marching armies. It is not much to look at, so use it as an excuse to walk the Wall instead.
Read the complete Cawfields Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cawfields Roman temporary camp comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp.
Look for a faint rectangle in the rough grass north of the Military Road, a few kilometres west of Chollerford, and you will have found Brown Dikes, one of a cluster of Roman temporary camps on the high ground above the North Tyne. Nothing stands here, no walls or gates, only low earthworks that the grazing sheep have softened over nearly two thousand years. But these camps are among the most evocative traces of the Roman army in Britain, because they mark where soldiers actually slept and worked while the frontier was being built and garrisoned.
Read the complete Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp. Next is back through Cawfields Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cawfields Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cawfields Roman temporary camp, late in the day. Next is Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S. That is the ride.
Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S → Cawfields Roman temporary camp is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cawfields Roman temporary camp → Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp → back through Cawfields Roman temporary camp is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cawfields Roman temporary camp → Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.