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.
377 km from Greenhead to Greenhead, about 5 h 04 of riding. On the way it passes Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &, Rudchester Roman fort, Durham Castle and Cathedral and Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 34 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
On a low ridge south of the Wall, near the village of Low Row, the foundations of a Roman stone tower sit in a field with a commanding view up and down the Irthing valley. The signal station on Mains Rigg belonged to the system of the Stanegate, the road that ran from Corbridge to Carlisle before the Wall was built, and it allowed messages to be passed between forts by fire, smoke or flags. From here, on a clear day, you can see for miles: west to Carlisle, east toward the Pennines and north over the Wall.
Read the complete Roman signal station on Mains Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg is where the day begins. Next is Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &.
Of all the Roman sites along Hadrian's Wall, Carrawburgh may be the most mysterious. The fort itself, called Brocolitia, is largely unexcavated, a grassy platform beside the Military Road, but just below it, in a boggy hollow, stands the reconstructed outline of a small temple of Mithras, the soldiers' god, whose cult was popular among the Roman army. The temple was excavated in 1949, and its three altars, now replaced by replicas, the originals being in the Great North Museum in Newcastle, were dedicated by commanders of the garrison. Nearby, a spring dedicated to the water goddess Coventina yielded an astonishing hoard of coins, altars and offerings when it was excavated in the nineteenth century, around thirteen thousand coins in all.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rudchester Roman fort.
Rudchester, known to the Romans as Vindobala, was the fourth fort along Hadrian's Wall counting from Wallsend at the eastern end. It sat astride the Wall on high ground west of Newcastle, with a garrison of around five hundred soldiers. Today, there is nothing to see above ground but fields and the bumps and hollows of buried walls, with a farm nearby. Excavations in the twentieth century found traces of a temple to Mithras just outside the fort, one of several on the Wall, where soldiers worshipped the god in a dark, cave-like building.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Rudchester Roman fort. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
The river Wear loops around a rocky peninsula in a tight horseshoe, and on top of it, rising above the trees, stand Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, one of the most impressive views in Britain. The Normans built both in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, soon after the Conquest, as a statement of power in the turbulent north. The cathedral is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, with massive columns carved with zigzags and spirals, and its stone rib vaults are among the earliest of their kind in Europe, pointing the way to Gothic architecture. Together, castle and cathedral were listed by UNESCO in 1986.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durham Castle and Cathedral, about halfway. Next is Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of.
Fountains Abbey is the largest monastic ruin in Britain, and it stands in a valley so green and quiet that it hardly seems real. In 1132, a group of Benedictine monks, dissatisfied with the lax life at York, left their abbey and sought a stricter rule, and with the help of the archbishop, they settled in this remote valley beside the river Skell. They became Cistercians, and over the next four centuries the abbey grew rich on sheep and wool, building a huge church, a vaulted cellarium, and a tower that still rises above the ruins. Henry VIII dissolved the abbey in 1539, and the roofs were stripped for lead.
Read the complete Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of sits at 208 km, about halfway. Next is back through Durham Castle and Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral comes up about 282 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Rudchester Roman fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rudchester Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 323 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Rudchester Roman fort. Next is back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall &, late in the day. Next is Roman signal station on Mains Rigg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roman signal station on Mains Rigg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 377 km.
Roman signal station on Mains Rigg → Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & → Rudchester Roman fort is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rudchester Roman fort → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of → back through Durham Castle and Cathedral is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Rudchester Roman fort is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rudchester Roman fort → back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Carrawburgh Roman fort & Hadrian's Wall & → Roman signal station on Mains Rigg is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.