Why this ride
269 km from Bardon Mill to Bardon Mill, about 3 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp, The English Lake District and back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp. Lakes are the scenery here.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 269 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 53
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp → The English Lake District
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 65 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 83 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is where the day begins. Next is Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp.
2. Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp
Carlisle is a border city, and it has been fought over for two thousand years. The Romans founded Luguvalium here to serve the Wall and the road north, and a settlement has stood beside the Eden ever since. The red sandstone cathedral dates from the twelfth century, and the castle beside it held Mary Queen of Scots for two months in 1568, after she fled across the Solway. In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army took the city on its march into England and lost it on the way back, and the Jacobite prisoners were held in the castle. The names of the old border families, the Armstrongs, Grahams and Nixons, still fill the telephone book.
Read the complete Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp comes up about 52 km into the recorded legs. Next is The English Lake District.
3. The English Lake District
Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud round here, and anybody who has ridden the Lake District on a wet bank holiday will understand the appeal of being lonely. The English Lake District, listed by UNESCO in 2017 as a cultural landscape, is a compact knot of mountains, lakes and valleys in Cumbria, shaped by glaciers and then by centuries of sheep farming, slate quarrying and, from the late eighteenth century, by poets, painters and tourists who came looking for the sublime.
Read the complete The English Lake District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp.
4. back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp, late in the day. Next is Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags.
5. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags to Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp
Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags → Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp to The English Lake District
Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp → The English Lake District is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The English Lake District to back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp
The English Lake District → back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp to Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags
back through Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp → Roman quarry inscription on Queen's Crags is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.