CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
140 km from Haydon Bridge to Haydon Bridge, about 2 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank, Roman fort and back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Hadrian's Wall in its central section does what a good border should: it picks the best ridge in the country and sits on top of it. The wall was begun in AD 122, under the emperor Hadrian, and it runs for about eighty Roman miles, roughly 117 kilometres, from the Tyne to the Solway. In the middle stretch, between Haydon Bridge and Haltwhistle, it follows a line of crags called the Whin Sill, a hard, dark volcanic rock that breaks the Northumbrian moors into a series of cliffs, so that the wall looks as if it grew out of the stone.
Read the complete Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
The road west from Heddon-on-the-Wall runs straight as a ruler, and there is a reason for that. The B6318, known locally as the Military Road, was built by General Wade's engineers after the Jacobite rising of 1745 so that troops could move quickly between Newcastle and Carlisle, and for long stretches they laid it right on top of Hadrian's Wall, using the Roman stones as foundation. At Oatens Bank, just beyond Heddon, you ride with the Wall beneath your tyres and the ditch and vallum still visible in the fields beside you, two thousand years of frontier engineering compressed into a few metres.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank comes up 37 km in. Next is Roman fort.
At the mouth of the Tyne, on a rise above the river, stands a reconstructed Roman gateway that looks surprisingly new. It belongs to Arbeia, the Roman fort at South Shields, which supplied the soldiers along Hadrian's Wall and was built, strategically, to guard the entrance to the river. Ships unloaded grain and other goods here, and the stores were carried along the Wall's line, so this was the logistical heart of the frontier. Reconstructed buildings, including the gatehouse, a barrack and a commander's house, show how it looked, and the museum holds finds from the site.
Read the complete Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
74 km in you reach Roman fort. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank, late in the day. Next is Roman camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Roman camp. That is the ride.
Roman camp → Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → Roman fort is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → Roman camp is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.