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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 142 km round trip from Haltwhistle - roughly 2 h 28 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr, Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66, Biglands House and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66.
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, a claim based on being halfway between the north and south coasts of the island, and while other towns dispute it, nobody disputes that it is the best base for exploring the central section of Hadrian's Wall. Just north of the town, on the rough ground below the crags, Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp is one of several marching camps where Roman troops on the move dug defences for a night or longer, and the label includes a section of the vallum nearby. It is all part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp and secti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp and secti is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 25 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 46 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66. 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, 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 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr comes up about 118 km into the recorded legs. Next is Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp and secti.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp and secti write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp and secti closes the day.
Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp and secti → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr → Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → Biglands House is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Biglands House → back through 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.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum in wall mile 66 → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Banks Gr → Seatsides 1 Roman temporary camp and secti is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.