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.
From Annan it runs 331 km to Annan; allow about 5 h 00 of riding. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas, The English Lake District and back through Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas. It strings together lakeside roads.
Bowness-on-Solway is where Hadrian's Wall ends, or begins, depending on which way you are walking. This quiet village on the southern shore of the Solway Firth sits on top of the Roman fort of Maia, the second largest on the Wall, and its civilian settlement, which together make up the site on the label, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Almost nothing of the fort survives above ground, as much of the stone went into the houses, church and farm buildings of the village, but you can find Roman stones reused in walls if you look closely.
Read the complete The Roman fort and associated civil settle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Roman fort and associated civil settle is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 165 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. 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, late in the day. Next is The Roman fort and associated civil settle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Roman fort and associated civil settle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Roman fort and associated civil settle. That is the ride.
The Roman fort and associated civil settle → Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas → The English Lake District is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The English Lake District → back through Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Hadrian's Wall between Walltown Quarry Eas → The Roman fort and associated civil settle is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.