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 135 km round trip from Haltwhistle - roughly 1 h 56 in the saddle. The stops in between: Red House Roman camp, Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank, Roman fort and back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, and whether or not you believe the measurements, it sits at the very heart of Hadrian's Wall country. Just outside the town, on a gentle slope called Sunny Rigg, the outlines of two Roman temporary camps have been traced, rectangular enclosures with rounded corners where units on the march, or building the wall, pitched their leather tents behind a bank and a ditch for a night or a season. They are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, though on the ground you will see only faint lines in the grass, best appreciated from the air or in low evening light.
Read the complete Sunny Rigg 2 Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sunny Rigg 2 Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Red House Roman camp.
A few kilometres west of Hexham the South and North Tyne have long since joined, and the valley widens into a level green floor of fields, hedges and small woods, with the Wall's ridge just visible to the north. The Red House Roman camp lies in this farmland, about five kilometres from Haydon Bridge, Acomb and Hexham, on the Roman road known as the Stanegate, which ran across the neck of Britain from Carlisle to Corbridge.
Read the complete Red House Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Red House Roman camp comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
The road west from Heddon-on-the-Wall runs straight as a ruler, and there is a reason for that. The B6318, known locally as the Military Road, was built by General Wade's engineers after the Jacobite rising of 1745 so that troops could move quickly between Newcastle and Carlisle, and for long stretches they laid it right on top of Hadrian's Wall, using the Roman stones as foundation. At Oatens Bank, just beyond Heddon, you ride with the Wall beneath your tyres and the ditch and vallum still visible in the fields beside you, two thousand years of frontier engineering compressed into a few metres.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank 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 from Oatens Bank. Next is Roman fort.
Newcastle got its name from a castle built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, but the hilltop he chose above the Tyne had already been used for centuries. Beneath the Castle Keep and the Black Gate lie the remains of Pons Aelius, a small Roman fort that guarded a bridge across the river near the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. The name honoured Hadrian himself, whose family name was Aelius. Outlines of the fort are marked in the paving around the keep, and the Swing Bridge below crosses the river close to where the Roman bridge stood.
Read the complete Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roman fort, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Red House Roman camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Red House Roman camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Red House Roman camp comes up about 116 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sunny Rigg 2 Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sunny Rigg 2 Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sunny Rigg 2 Roman temporary camp closes the day.
Sunny Rigg 2 Roman temporary camp → Red House Roman camp is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Red House Roman camp → Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → Roman fort is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall from Oatens Bank → back through Red House Roman camp is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Red House Roman camp → Sunny Rigg 2 Roman temporary camp is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.