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 131 km round trip from Newcastle upon Tyne - roughly 2 h 02 in the saddle. On the way it passes The vallum between Oatens Bank, Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp, Burnhead Roman temporary camp and back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
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.
Roman fort is where the day begins. Next is The vallum between Oatens Bank.
Look south of the road near Oatens Bank, just west of Heddon on the Wall, and you will see it: a broad, flat-bottomed ditch running across the fields, with a low mound on either side. That is the vallum, and it is one of the strangest and most debated elements of Hadrian's Wall. It runs parallel to the wall, a short distance to the south, along most of its length, and it seems to have marked the rear edge of the military zone, controlling access from the south rather than defending against attack from the north. Crossings were limited to causeways opposite the forts, which suggests a kind of customs line.
Read the complete The vallum between Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The vallum between Oatens Bank comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
Roman armies on campaign dug in every night. Wherever they halted, soldiers threw up a rectangular earth rampart and ditch around their tents, and on Walwick Fell, a short way west of the North Tyne, the faint outline of one of those temporary camps survives in the rough pasture. You need a keen eye and low sunlight to make it out, but its presence is a reminder that the Wall was built, maintained and defended by thousands of men who lived and worked in these hills, sometimes under canvas, sometimes in stone forts.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp. Next is Burnhead Roman temporary camp.
The Stanegate is the Roman road that came before the Wall, and Burnhead lies close to its line. Before Hadrian's engineers began their great work in AD 122, the frontier of Roman Britain ran along this road from Corbridge in the east to Carlisle in the west, guarded by forts at intervals of about a day's march, and the Wall was built a little to the north, along the crags. The camp at Burnhead, which belongs to the temporary camps that armies built on the march, is one of the faint earthworks in this country, a low square of bank and ditch in a field above the Haltwhistle Burn.
Read the complete Burnhead Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burnhead Roman temporary camp, about halfway. Next is back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through The vallum between Oatens Bank.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The vallum between Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The vallum between Oatens Bank comes up about 109 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman fort closes the day.
Roman fort → The vallum between Oatens Bank is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The vallum between Oatens Bank → Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → Burnhead Roman temporary camp is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burnhead Roman temporary camp → back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → back through The vallum between Oatens Bank is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The vallum between Oatens Bank → Roman fort is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.