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 Brampton it runs 288 km to Brampton; allow about 4 h 51 of riding. It goes by way of Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri, Blitterlees, Parton Roman fort and Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house. The line favours views over speed.
34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 31 km this is Hardknott and Wrynose Passes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Before Hadrian built his wall, the Romans controlled northern Britain with a line of forts along a road called the Stanegate, which ran from Corbridge to Carlisle, and Nether Denton was one of them. The fort, on a hill above the River Irthing near Gilsland, is now marked only by faint earthworks around the small church of Nether Denton, which stands on the site. It is a quiet place, with only rooks and sheep for company.
Read the complete Nether Denton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nether Denton Roman fort is where the day begins. Next is Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri.
Beaumont is one of those small places where history is stacked in layers, like books on a shelf. The little church of St Mary stands on a grassy mound that was once a Norman motte, a castle earthwork, and that mound in turn sits right on the line of Hadrian's Wall as it heads west from Carlisle towards the Solway. The builders of the motte used the Roman wall as a convenient quarry and foundation, and the church builders after them did the same. You will find no tall Roman masonry here, only the line itself, traced in field boundaries and the slight rise of the ground, and an awareness that you are standing on the edge of an empire.
Read the complete Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Blitterlees.
Silloth sits on a flat spit of land on the Solway Firth, and from the shore you look across the water to the hills of Dumfriesshire, blue in clear weather and smudged away in rain. This was once a Roman frontier too. The line of Hadrian's Wall did not stop at the western end of the stone wall but continued down the Cumbrian coast as a chain of milefortlets and towers, small posts built to watch for raiders crossing by sea or by the tidal flats, and some of their sites lie on this shore. Blitterlees is a marsh and farm on the coast close to Silloth, and traces of those posts are found in the area, mostly as faint bumps and records rather than visible walls.
Read the complete Blitterlees write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Blitterlees. Next is 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.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Parton Roman fort, about halfway. Next is Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house.
Walls Castle is the odd name for a Roman bath house, and the building still stands to a height of about four metres, one of the tallest Roman structures in northern England. It stood outside the fort of Glannoventa at Ravenglass, a harbour station at the meeting of three rivers, the Irt, the Mite and the Esk, and in the dry shelter of the dunes it has survived because its walls were thick and well built. You can walk around it on a short path from the village, and see niches and a doorway in the thick walls. The fort itself lies mostly under farmland and the railway.
Read the complete Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Parton Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Parton Roman fort comes up about 175 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Blitterlees.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Blitterlees write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 220 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Blitterlees. Next is back through Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri, late in the day. Next is Nether Denton Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nether Denton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 288 km.
Nether Denton Roman fort → Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri → Blitterlees is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Blitterlees → Parton Roman fort is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parton Roman fort → Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house → back through Parton Roman fort is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parton Roman fort → back through Blitterlees is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Blitterlees → back through Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beaumont motte castle and section of Hadri → Nether Denton Roman fort is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.