Throp Roman fortlet and Red House Roman camp

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Throp Roman fortlet

   Throp is a farm name on the edge of Gilsland, in the narrow gap where the River Irthing slips between the northern Pennines and the moors that roll north towards the Scottish border. A small Roman fortlet stood here, close to the Stanegate, the road that ran along the valley before the Wall was built, and it is one of the many features that make up the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Not much remains to see, but the setting is classic Wall country.

   Read the complete Throp Roman fortlet write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Throp Roman fortlet is where the day begins. Next is Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp.

2. 2. Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp

   Seatsides is a name on a map of fields, a spot where a Roman temporary camp is visible only as a faint square in the grass when the light is low. These camps were put up by marching armies, each night, with a ditch and a bank thrown around a regular rectangle, and some of them in the north of England survive as earthworks nearly two thousand years later. This one lies near Haltwhistle, in the Tyne Gap, the low pass that cuts between the Pennines and the Cheviot hills and has been the natural route from east to west across northern England since before the Romans.

   Read the complete Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Red House Roman camp.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 29 km into the recorded legs you reach Red House Roman camp. Next is back through Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp.

4. 4. back through Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Seatsides 2 Roman temporary camp, late in the day. Next is Throp Roman fortlet.

5. 5. Throp Roman fortlet

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Throp Roman fortlet write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Throp Roman fortlet. That is the ride.