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 151 km round trip from Bardon Mill - roughly 2 h 26 in the saddle. The stops in between: Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La, Hadrian's Wall between the dismantled rail and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La. The line favours views over speed.
The Wall needed millions of dressed stones, and the Romans quarried them close to where they were needed. On Queen's Crags, a ridge of sandstone north of the Wall near Housesteads, they left a calling card: an inscription cut into the rock face, one of several known Roman quarry inscriptions along the frontier, recording a soldier or unit at work. It is a small, weathered thing, hard to find without directions, but it is a direct link to the men who cut the stone for the Wall.
Read the complete Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is where the day begins. Next is Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
The Wall comes into its own here, at the Irthing gorge, where the line runs along a high shelf above the river and you can see why the Romans picked it. Birdoswald fort, known to them as Banna, sits right on that edge, with a long view down the valley and the ground falling away to the water.
Read the complete Frontiers of the Roman Empire write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Just east of Carlisle, near the village of Scotby, the Wall leaves almost no mark on the land. Here, at the western end of the Roman frontier, it was built first of turf and timber before being rebuilt in stone, and much of that stone has since been carried off to build farmhouses, churches and field walls. What survives is mostly buried, a faint line in the pasture or a slight ridge followed by a hedge. The vallum, the great earthwork that ran behind the wall, sometimes shows as a shallow trough in the fields. Yet this quiet stretch is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further east, and walking the Hadrian's Wall Path through it gives a sense of continuity across the whole country.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the dismantled rail.
The Solway Firth narrows at Bowness-on-Solway, a small village of whitewashed cottages on a low headland, and this is where Hadrian's Wall ended, or rather began, at its western end.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the dismantled rail write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between the dismantled rail, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Frontiers of the Roman Empire write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire comes up about 127 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags closes the day.
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags → Frontiers of the Roman Empire is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → Hadrian's Wall between the dismantled rail is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between the dismantled rail → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire → Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.