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.
A 207 km round trip from Carlisle - roughly 3 h 04 in the saddle. The stops in between: Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags, Roman fort and back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags. The line favours views over speed.
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 Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags.
The Wall needed millions of dressed stones, and the Romans quarried them close to where they were needed. On Queen's Crags, a ridge of sandstone north of the Wall near Housesteads, they left a calling card: an inscription cut into the rock face, one of several known Roman quarry inscriptions along the frontier, recording a soldier or unit at work. It is a small, weathered thing, hard to find without directions, but it is a direct link to the men who cut the stone for the Wall.
Read the complete Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roman fort.
Newcastle got its name from a castle built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, but the hilltop he chose above the Tyne had already been used for centuries. Beneath the Castle Keep and the Black Gate lie the remains of Pons Aelius, a small Roman fort that guarded a bridge across the river near the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. The name honoured Hadrian himself, whose family name was Aelius. Outlines of the fort are marked in the paving around the keep, and the Swing Bridge below crosses the river close to where the Roman bridge stood.
Read the complete Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Roman fort. Next is back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags, 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.
Back at Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.
Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp → Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags → Roman fort is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman fort → back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags → Nowtler Hill 2 Roman temporary camp is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.