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 Carlisle it runs 271 km to Carlisle; allow about 5 h of riding. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel, Rudchester Roman fort, Durham Castle and Cathedral and back through Rudchester Roman fort. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 40 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Not every Roman monument is made of stone. North of Carlisle, on low ground close to the Solway plain, the traces of a Roman temporary camp show up mainly as marks in the ground and in crops: a square or rectangle of ditch and bank, with rounded corners, where an army spent a night or two under leather tents. Nowtler Hill was one of those places. Marching armies built such camps every evening, digging the ditch and piling the earth into a rampart topped with stakes, so that even a short halt was protected.
Read the complete Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
West of Birdoswald the Wall changes character. The central crags fall behind, the River Irthing loops through its gorge below, and the frontier runs across gentler farmland towards Banks and Hare Hill, where one of the tallest surviving fragments of the Wall still stands, patched by later hands. Here too the vallum, the great earthwork south of the Wall, can be traced across the fields, and the remains of turrets at Banks East and Pike Hill sit right beside the road. It is a quieter stretch than the famous sections further east, and all the better for it.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
Just west of Chollerford the road climbs onto higher ground and the Wall begins to show itself, first as a hump in the fields, then as a ditch and earthwork running alongside the tarmac. This is the central sector of Hadrian's Wall, built from the 120s on the orders of the emperor Hadrian to mark the northern edge of Roman Britain, and the stretch around Carrawburgh is one of the most atmospheric. The vallum, a broad ditch flanked by mounds on the southern side of the Wall, is especially clear here, and it shows the Roman frontier was not just a wall but a whole military zone, with forts, milecastles, turrets, roads and earthworks.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel. Next is Rudchester Roman fort.
Rudchester, known to the Romans as Vindobala, was the fourth fort along Hadrian's Wall counting from Wallsend at the eastern end. It sat astride the Wall on high ground west of Newcastle, with a garrison of around five hundred soldiers. Today, there is nothing to see above ground but fields and the bumps and hollows of buried walls, with a farm nearby. Excavations in the twentieth century found traces of a temple to Mithras just outside the fort, one of several on the Wall, where soldiers worshipped the god in a dark, cave-like building.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rudchester Roman fort, about halfway. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
The river Wear loops around a rocky peninsula in a tight horseshoe, and on top of it, rising above the trees, stand Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, one of the most impressive views in Britain. The Normans built both in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, soon after the Conquest, as a statement of power in the turbulent north. The cathedral is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, with massive columns carved with zigzags and spirals, and its stone rib vaults are among the earliest of their kind in Europe, pointing the way to Gothic architecture. Together, castle and cathedral were listed by UNESCO in 1986.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durham Castle and Cathedral sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rudchester Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rudchester Roman fort comes up about 185 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 213 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel, late in the day. Next is Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 271 km.
Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Rudchester Roman fort is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rudchester Roman fort → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Rudchester Roman fort is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rudchester Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.