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.
156 km from Silloth to Silloth, about 2 h 38 of riding. It goes by way of Biglands House, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 24 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The Roman frontier did not stop where Hadrian's Wall ended. At Bowness, on the Solway shore, the stone and turf barrier gave out, but a chain of small forts, fortlets and watchtowers continued south along the Cumbrian coast, past Silloth and Maryport to near St Bees, to guard against raiders coming across the water from Scotland and the Irish Sea. Archaeologists still argue about how it worked. Often only a faint platform in a field remains.
Read the complete Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields is where the day begins. 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.
Biglands House comes up about 31 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 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr.
North-east of Brampton, the Wall climbs out of the Irthing valley and runs along a ridge past the hamlet of Banks, and here you can see something many visitors miss: not only the Wall itself, but the vallum, the great earthwork ditch with banks on either side that the Romans dug just south of it. The vallum marked a military zone, a controlled strip where civilians could not wander freely, and seeing its long straight line beside the stone curtain makes the frontier feel less like a wall and more like a whole system of control.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr, about halfway. 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.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 sits at 99 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Biglands House comes up about 124 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields closes the day.
Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields → Biglands House is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Biglands House → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 22 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 Biglands House is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Biglands House → Roman fortlet 40m SSW of Castle Fields is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.