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.
From South Shields it runs 255 km to South Shields; allow about 4 h 11 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc, Brown Moor Roman temporary camp, Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S and Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Roman fort is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc.
Most people meet Hadrian's Wall in the wild middle section around Housesteads, where it rides the crags of the Whin Sill. Out here at the eastern end, a few miles from Newcastle, it is a quieter, more domestic affair, and that is part of its charm. Heddon on the Wall, four kilometres away, keeps one of the longest surviving stretches of the wall's full broad foundation on this side of the country, a solid run of masonry beside the road, and the ground around it preserves the vallum, the great flat-bottomed ditch with banks on either side that the Romans dug just south of the wall to mark the military zone. Begun under the emperor Hadrian in AD 122, the whole frontier ran from the Tyne to the Solway, and it is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Brown Moor Roman temporary camp.
A couple of kilometres west of Chollerford, the Military Road climbs onto open moorland, and at a place called Limestone Corner, the most northerly point of Hadrian's Wall, the Romans gave up. Their ditch in front of the Wall was supposed to be cut through solid rock here, and you can still see where they started: huge blocks of whinstone split by wedges and left lying in the ditch, with holes for the levers still visible, as if the workers had just walked away for lunch. Brown Moor, close by, is the site of one of several Roman temporary camps in this stretch, where soldiers camped while building the Wall or moving through the frontier zone, their outlines barely visible in the rough grass.
Read the complete Brown Moor Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach Brown Moor Roman temporary camp. Next is Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S.
Where Cumbria meets Northumberland in the valley of the river Irthing, the Wall climbs out of a wooded gorge on to open ground, and a Roman road called the Maiden Way ran north from the Wall towards Bewcastle and south towards Kirkby Thore, linking the frontier to the supply routes of the interior.
Read the complete Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S, about halfway. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav.
Carlisle was the western hub of Hadrian's Wall, and on its northern edge, at Stanwix, stood the largest fort on the whole frontier. Known to the Romans as Uxelodunum, it held a cavalry regiment about a thousand strong, and its commander was one of the most important officers on the wall. Little of it is visible now, since the fort lies under the streets and gardens of a suburb, but the line of the wall can be traced through the town, in parts of the pavement and the shape of the streets, and a short surviving section lies in a quiet corner near the river Eden.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S comes up about 159 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Brown Moor Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brown Moor Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 192 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Brown Moor Roman temporary camp. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 255 km.
Roman fort → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc → Brown Moor Roman temporary camp is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Brown Moor Roman temporary camp → Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S → Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between the east end of Dav → back through Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maiden Way Roman road from B6318 to 450m S → back through Brown Moor Roman temporary camp is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Brown Moor Roman temporary camp → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc → Roman fort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.