Why this ride
255 km from Greenhead to Greenhead, about 3 h 57 of riding. It goes by way of Kirkbride Roman fort, The English Lake District and back through Kirkbride Roman fort. Lakes are the scenery here.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 255 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 57
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Kirkbride Roman fort → The English Lake District
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 65 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 75 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The section of Stanegate Roman road from F
Haltwhistle likes to call itself the centre of Britain, and on the road through the South Tyne valley it is easy to believe that this is where England quietly runs out of people. Just north of the town, the line of the Stanegate, the Roman road that linked Carlisle with Corbridge, crosses farmland on the flank of the valley. Little of it shows as more than a faint agger, a raised bank under the grass, but it is older than Hadrian's Wall, which runs along the crags a few kilometres to the north.
Read the complete The section of Stanegate Roman road from F write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F is where the day begins. Next is Kirkbride Roman fort.
2. Kirkbride Roman fort
The tide turns the Solway Firth into an enormous, shifting plain of sand and water, and the Roman fort at Kirkbride stood at the edge of it. Here, at the western limit of the frontier in the lower Eden valley, the Romans built a fort to guard the crossing of the estuary, and the earthworks show a rectangular platform in a field by the village. The fort belonged to the Wall system, which continued along the coast, and the first thing a visitor realises is how big the view is. On a clear day you can see the Scottish hills across the water, and the ridges of Criffel and Burnswark, and the line of the shore bending away to the west.
Read the complete Kirkbride Roman fort write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kirkbride Roman fort comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is The English Lake District.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Kirkbride Roman fort.
4. back through Kirkbride Roman fort
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kirkbride Roman fort write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Kirkbride Roman fort, late in the day. Next is The section of Stanegate Roman road from F.
5. The section of Stanegate Roman road from F
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The section of Stanegate Roman road from F write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at The section of Stanegate Roman road from F. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F to Kirkbride Roman fort
The section of Stanegate Roman road from F → Kirkbride Roman fort is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kirkbride Roman fort to The English Lake District
Kirkbride Roman fort → The English Lake District is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The English Lake District to back through Kirkbride Roman fort
The English Lake District → back through Kirkbride Roman fort is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kirkbride Roman fort to The section of Stanegate Roman road from F
back through Kirkbride Roman fort → The section of Stanegate Roman road from F is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.