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 257 km round trip from Hexham - roughly 4 h 18 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66, Skinburness and Burrow Walls Roman fort. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
A few kilometres west of Hexham the South and North Tyne have long since joined, and the valley widens into a level green floor of fields, hedges and small woods, with the Wall's ridge just visible to the north. The Red House Roman camp lies in this farmland, about five kilometres from Haydon Bridge, Acomb and Hexham, on the Roman road known as the Stanegate, which ran across the neck of Britain from Carlisle to Corbridge.
Read the complete Red House Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Red House Roman camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
Gilsland is a village with a split personality. The boundary between Northumberland and Cumbria runs right through it, along the Poltross Burn, so the houses on one side are in one county and those on the other in another. Hadrian's Wall runs through it too, and the stretch of Wall, vallum and associated features around the village is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. The Wall here crosses the narrow gorge of the burn and the railway line, with a milecastle right next to the old station.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
The western end of Hadrian's Wall runs right through Carlisle, and the stretch counted as wall mile 66 lies on the edge of the city, close to where the wall crossed the River Eden. The Roman town of Luguvalium grew up here, and the fort at Stanwix, across the river, housed a cavalry regiment and was the largest on the wall. Very little of the stone wall survives in the city, much of it having been robbed for buildings, but the line of the wall and vallum can be traced in places, and the Tullie House museum tells the story of Roman Carlisle with excellent displays.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. Next is Skinburness.
Skinburness is a scatter of houses at the tip of a shingle spit on the Solway coast of Cumbria, just north of Silloth, looking across the wide, shimmering estuary to the hills of Scotland. When the tide goes out, the Solway empties into vast expanses of sand and mud, with channels winding through them, and the light changes constantly as clouds race overhead. On clear evenings, the sunsets over the Scottish hills, with the dark bulk of Criffel opposite, are spectacular.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Skinburness, about halfway. Next is Burrow Walls Roman fort.
On the northern edge of Workington, near the mouth of the river Derwent, a fragment of stone wall stands alone in a field, a jagged piece of masonry rising above the grass. It is part of Burrow Walls, a Roman fort that guarded the Cumbrian coast, one of the chain of defences that extended from the western end of Hadrian's Wall down the shore to watch for raiders crossing from Scotland and Ireland. Much of the fort's stone was reused in a medieval building on the site, and what survives today is modest, but it is part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site and has a lonely charm, with views over the sea and the river.
Read the complete Burrow Walls Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burrow Walls Roman fort sits at 143 km, about halfway. Next is back through Skinburness.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Skinburness write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Skinburness comes up about 162 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 198 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ, late in the day. Next is Red House Roman camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Red House Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 257 km.
Red House Roman camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → Skinburness is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Skinburness → Burrow Walls Roman fort is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burrow Walls Roman fort → back through Skinburness is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Skinburness → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ → Red House Roman camp is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.