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 128 km round trip from Carlisle - roughly 2 h 09 in the saddle. The stops in between: Willowford Roman temporary camp, Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet, Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ and back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
Before there was a Wall, there was a road. The Stanegate, a Roman route running east to west between the Tyne at Corbridge and the Eden at Carlisle, was the first frontier line in northern Britain, guarded by a string of forts decades before Hadrian ordered his great barrier built a little to the north. Near Crosby-on-Eden, a few miles east of Carlisle, the line of the old road passes through gentle farmland on the north bank of the Eden, and while there is little to see of the road itself, the landscape tells the story of how the Romans picked their way across this narrow neck of the country.
Read the complete The Stangate at Crosby Lodge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Stangate at Crosby Lodge is where the day begins. Next is Willowford Roman temporary camp.
Rivers move, and the Irthing at Willowford proves it. When the Romans built the Wall here, they carried it across the river on a bridge, and the massive stone abutment of that bridge survives on the east bank, now well away from the water, because the river has shifted west over the centuries. Nearby, the earthwork outline of a Roman temporary camp, one of many marching camps built by units on campaign or on construction duty, lies in the fields. Temporary camps were ramparts of turf and ditches thrown up for a few nights or weeks, and their faint shapes are often best seen from the air or in low winter light.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Willowford Roman temporary camp comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
This is the stretch of Hadrian's Wall that everyone pictures: the stone curtain running along the crest of the Whin Sill, a hard dolerite ridge that ends in sheer north-facing crags, with lakes like Crag Lough and Greenlee Lough glinting below. Housesteads fort is close by, clinging to the hillside with its barracks, granaries and famous communal latrines, and the Wall dips and climbs over each crag in a way that seems almost reckless as engineering. The Sycamore Gap tree, which stood in a dip in the ridge for generations, was felled in an act of vandalism in 2023, and the loss is still felt locally.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 43 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ.
Gilsland is a village with a split personality. The boundary between Northumberland and Cumbria runs right through it, along the Poltross Burn, so the houses on one side are in one county and those on the other in another. Hadrian's Wall runs through it too, and the stretch of Wall, vallum and associated features around the village is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. The Wall here crosses the narrow gorge of the burn and the railway line, with a milecastle right next to the old station.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet sits at 98 km, about halfway. Next is back through Willowford Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Willowford Roman temporary camp comes up about 106 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Stangate at Crosby Lodge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Stangate at Crosby Lodge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Stangate at Crosby Lodge closes the day.
The Stangate at Crosby Lodge → Willowford Roman temporary camp is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Willowford Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum and their associ → back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and associated features bet → back through Willowford Roman temporary camp is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Willowford Roman temporary camp → The Stangate at Crosby Lodge is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.