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 Greenhead it runs 373 km to Greenhead; allow about 4 h 57 of riding. The stops in between: Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp, Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H, Durham Castle and Cathedral and Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 39 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Throp Roman fortlet is where the day begins. Next is Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp.
Limestone Corner is the most northerly point on Hadrian's Wall, and it is famous for a job left unfinished. The Romans dug a defensive ditch in front of the Wall along most of its length, but here they hit a band of hard whinstone, and after cutting some of the huge blocks free and splitting others with wedges, they simply gave up. The blocks still lie where they were left, some with the holes for the wedges visible, nearly nineteen centuries later. Nearby, the earthworks of a Roman temporary camp, where troops on the move once pitched their tents behind a ditch and bank, are part of the same Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
Read the complete Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H.
Heddon-on-the-Wall announces its pedigree in its name, and just east of the village, on the slope down towards Newcastle, you find the longest surviving stretch of the Wall in the eastern sector. It is a section of broad wall, built to the original specification of about ten Roman feet thick, before the builders further west were told to save time and stone by making it narrower. Standing beside it, with fields falling away towards the Tyne, you get a strong sense of the scale of the project: this curtain once ran unbroken for eighty Roman miles.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H. Next is Durham Castle and Cathedral.
The river Wear loops around a rocky peninsula in a tight horseshoe, and on top of it, rising above the trees, stand Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, one of the most impressive views in Britain. The Normans built both in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, soon after the Conquest, as a statement of power in the turbulent north. The cathedral is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, with massive columns carved with zigzags and spirals, and its stone rib vaults are among the earliest of their kind in Europe, pointing the way to Gothic architecture. Together, castle and cathedral were listed by UNESCO in 1986.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durham Castle and Cathedral, about halfway. Next is Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of.
Fountains Abbey is the largest monastic ruin in Britain, and it stands in a valley so green and quiet that it hardly seems real. In 1132, a group of Benedictine monks, dissatisfied with the lax life at York, left their abbey and sought a stricter rule, and with the help of the archbishop, they settled in this remote valley beside the river Skell. They became Cistercians, and over the next four centuries the abbey grew rich on sheep and wool, building a huge church, a vaulted cellarium, and a tower that still rises above the ruins. Henry VIII dissolved the abbey in 1539, and the roofs were stripped for lead.
Read the complete Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through Durham Castle and Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Durham Castle and Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral comes up about 280 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 320 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H. Next is back through Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp, late in the day. Next is Throp Roman fortlet.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Throp Roman fortlet write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 373 km.
Throp Roman fortlet → Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H → Durham Castle and Cathedral is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durham Castle and Cathedral → Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of → back through Durham Castle and Cathedral is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Durham Castle and Cathedral → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum from East Town H → back through Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limestone Corner Roman temporary camp → Throp Roman fortlet is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.