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.
67 km from Carlisle to Carlisle, about 1 h 14 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary, Kirkbride Roman fort and back through Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
When the Romans abandoned their Wall, local builders found it a splendid quarry. Lanercost Priory, a few kilometres east of Brampton, was begun in the twelfth century by Augustinian canons, and its red sandstone includes dressed stones that were once part of the Wall and its forts, still marked with the tool lines of Roman masons. Naworth Castle, close by, was built from the same stone. In that sense, the Wall never really went away: it turned into churches, castles and farm walls across the north of England.
Read the complete The vallum between the road to Laversdale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The vallum between the road to Laversdale is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary.
Just outside Carlisle, among hedges and grazing fields, a short protected length of ground marks where Hadrian's Wall once ran between two farm boundaries. That is all the official name means, and the honest truth is that there is very little to see: a gentle bank, perhaps a slight ditch, the alignment of a hedge that follows the Roman line because nobody ever bothered to move it. What makes it worth a pause is the bigger picture. The wall here was heading for the crossing of the River Eden, where it met the fort of Stanwix on the north bank, the biggest fort on the entire frontier, home to an elite cavalry regiment a thousand strong.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Kirkbride Roman fort. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary, late in the day. Next is The vallum between the road to Laversdale.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The vallum between the road to Laversdale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The vallum between the road to Laversdale. That is the ride.
The vallum between the road to Laversdale → Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary → Kirkbride Roman fort is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kirkbride Roman fort → back through Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall between the field boundary → The vallum between the road to Laversdale is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.