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 329 km round trip from Haltwhistle - roughly 5 h 27 in the saddle. On the way it passes The vallum between the road to Laversdale, Biglands House, Swarthy Hill North tower 20b and Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house. The line favours views over speed.
The Romans were obsessed with water, and even on this bleak ridge they went to extraordinary trouble to bring it to their fort. The fort of Great Chesters, called Aesica in Roman times, stood on a crag high above the Haltwhistle Burn, with no spring close enough to supply a garrison of several hundred men and their animals. So the engineers built an aqueduct, an open channel that ran for about eight kilometres, following the contours of the land from a stream to the west, and delivered a steady flow into the fort. It was no great arched structure with spans of stone, but a simple ditch, and its beauty lies in the precision of the gradient. You can still trace the channel as a shallow line in the grass.
Read the complete Roman aqueduct to Great Chesters from the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman aqueduct to Great Chesters from the is where the day begins. Next is The vallum between the road to Laversdale.
When the Romans abandoned their Wall, local builders found it a splendid quarry. Lanercost Priory, a few kilometres east of Brampton, was begun in the twelfth century by Augustinian canons, and its red sandstone includes dressed stones that were once part of the Wall and its forts, still marked with the tool lines of Roman masons. Naworth Castle, close by, was built from the same stone. In that sense, the Wall never really went away: it turned into churches, castles and farm walls across the north of England.
Read the complete The vallum between the road to Laversdale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The vallum between the road to Laversdale comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Biglands House.
Out on the Cumbrian shore of the Solway Firth, at the far western end of Hadrian's frontier, Biglands is a farmhouse name attached to the site of a small Roman milefortlet, one of the posts that carried the Wall's chain of defences down the coast once the stone curtain itself had stopped at Bowness. There is very little to see above ground; the fortlet was excavated and then returned to the grass. What you come for is the setting and the sense of standing at the edge of an empire, looking across a few kilometres of mud and water at Scotland.
Read the complete Biglands House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Biglands House. Next is Swarthy Hill North tower 20b.
Along the Cumbrian coast between Silloth and Maryport, the Roman frontier did not end when Hadrian's stone Wall reached Bowness. A chain of milefortlets and towers continued down the shore, watching the Solway for raiders arriving by boat, and Tower 20b near Swarthy Hill is one of them. It was a small stone watchtower, probably manned by a handful of soldiers, and what remains is a low outline in the turf above the beach. You come for the context and the view across the water rather than for the masonry.
Read the complete Swarthy Hill North tower 20b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Swarthy Hill North tower 20b, 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 164 km, about halfway. Next is back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Swarthy Hill North tower 20b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b comes up about 220 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Biglands House.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Biglands House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 260 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Biglands House. Next is back through The vallum between the road to Laversdale.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The vallum between the road to Laversdale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The vallum between the road to Laversdale, late in the day. Next is Roman aqueduct to Great Chesters from the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman aqueduct to Great Chesters from the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 329 km.
Roman aqueduct to Great Chesters from the → The vallum between the road to Laversdale is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The vallum between the road to Laversdale → Biglands House is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Biglands House → Swarthy Hill North tower 20b is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Swarthy Hill North tower 20b → Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house → back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Swarthy Hill North tower 20b → back through Biglands House is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Biglands House → back through The vallum between the road to Laversdale is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The vallum between the road to Laversdale → Roman aqueduct to Great Chesters from the is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.