Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp and Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
139 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 08
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.
From Hexham it runs 139 km to Hexham; allow about 2 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Burnhead Roman temporary camp, The vallum between the road to Garthside a, Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp and back through The vallum between the road to Garthside a. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp
Roman armies on campaign dug in every night. Wherever they halted, soldiers threw up a rectangular earth rampart and ditch around their tents, and on Walwick Fell, a short way west of the North Tyne, the faint outline of one of those temporary camps survives in the rough pasture. You need a keen eye and low sunlight to make it out, but its presence is a reminder that the Wall was built, maintained and defended by thousands of men who lived and worked in these hills, sometimes under canvas, sometimes in stone forts.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Burnhead Roman temporary camp.
2. Burnhead Roman temporary camp
The Stanegate is the Roman road that came before the Wall, and Burnhead lies close to its line. Before Hadrian's engineers began their great work in AD 122, the frontier of Roman Britain ran along this road from Corbridge in the east to Carlisle in the west, guarded by forts at intervals of about a day's march, and the Wall was built a little to the north, along the crags. The camp at Burnhead, which belongs to the temporary camps that armies built on the march, is one of the faint earthworks in this country, a low square of bank and ditch in a field above the Haltwhistle Burn.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Burnhead Roman temporary camp comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is The vallum between the road to Garthside a.
3. The vallum between the road to Garthside a
Brampton is a small red sandstone market town at the edge of the Pennines, and just north of it, where the land rises toward the Irthing valley, a stretch of the vallum runs across the fields near Garthside. The vallum, the great ditch and banks that ran south of Hadrian's Wall, is often clearer than the wall itself in this area, because the stone of the wall was carried off long ago to build farmhouses, churches and even a priory. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, and it is best seen in low light, when the earthworks cast long shadows.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 46 km into the recorded legs you reach The vallum between the road to Garthside a. Next is Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp.
4. Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp
Carlisle is a border city, and it has been fought over for two thousand years. The Romans founded Luguvalium here to serve the Wall and the road north, and a settlement has stood beside the Eden ever since. The red sandstone cathedral dates from the twelfth century, and the castle beside it held Mary Queen of Scots for two months in 1568, after she fled across the Solway. In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army took the city on its march into England and lost it on the way back, and the Jacobite prisoners were held in the castle. The names of the old border families, the Armstrongs, Grahams and Nixons, still fill the telephone book.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp closes the day.
Leg by leg
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp to Burnhead Roman temporary camp
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → Burnhead Roman temporary camp is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burnhead Roman temporary camp to The vallum between the road to Garthside a
Burnhead Roman temporary camp → The vallum between the road to Garthside a is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The vallum between the road to Garthside a to Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp
The vallum between the road to Garthside a → Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp to back through The vallum between the road to Garthside a
Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp → back through The vallum between the road to Garthside a is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The vallum between the road to Garthside a to back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp
back through The vallum between the road to Garthside a → back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp to Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp
back through Burnhead Roman temporary camp → Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.