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 272 km round trip from Maryport - roughly 4 h 25 in the saddle. It goes by way of Herd Hill, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La, Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal. The coast is the point of it.
Maryport is a small harbour town on the Cumbrian coast, built in the eighteenth century by the Senhouse family, who named it after Mary, the wife of Humphrey Senhouse. Long before that it was a Roman fort called Alauna, part of the coastal defences that continued south along the shore from the end of Hadrian's Wall. The Senhouse Roman Museum, set in a former Victorian naval battery on the cliffs, has a remarkable collection of altars found nearby, many of them dedicated by the commanders of the cohorts stationed here.
Read the complete Sea Brows write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sea Brows is where the day begins. Next is Herd Hill.
Herd Hill is a modest rise in the flat country near Annan, the sort of landmark that appears on a map without much fanfare. What matters is where it lies: on the Scottish shore of the Solway, in Annandale, a broad farming valley that runs up to the Southern Uplands. Annan sits on its river, once a port with tobacco and timber trade, and has a long history as a border town where English and Scottish armies fought over a place that changed hands many times.
Read the complete Herd Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Herd Hill comes up about 45 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 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La. Next is Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas.
Of all the places where Hadrian's Wall still behaves like a wall, Walltown is one of the most dramatic. The masonry rides the crest of the Great Whin Sill, a sheet of hard dark dolerite that pushed up through the surrounding rock about three hundred million years ago and then weathered into a line of cliffs facing north. The Roman engineers simply put their wall on top of the cliff, so the stones rise and fall with the crags, dipping into gaps the locals call nicks and climbing out again. Stand up there on a windy day and look north towards the empty country of Northumberland and you understand exactly why they chose the line.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas, about halfway. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal.
North of Hexham, where the land rises above the Tyne valley, the B6318, the military road built in the eighteenth century partly on top of Hadrian's Wall, runs straight across open country, and here, near the hamlet of St Oswald's, the remains of the wall and the vallum, the great earthwork that ran along its southern side, are clearly visible in the fields. The vallum was a broad ditch flanked by mounds, marking a military zone, and its scale still impresses. This stretch is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal sits at 137 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas comes up about 163 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 191 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La. Next is back through Herd Hill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Herd Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Herd Hill, late in the day. Next is Sea Brows.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sea Brows write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 272 km.
Sea Brows → Herd Hill is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Herd Hill → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 34 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 Walltown Quarry Eas is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between St Oswal → back through Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 28 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 Herd Hill is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Herd Hill → Sea Brows is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.