CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
From Hexham it runs 209 km to Hexham; allow about 3 h 04 of riding. It goes by way of Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La, Rise How tower 25a and back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Just east of Carlisle, near the village of Scotby, the Wall leaves almost no mark on the land. Here, at the western end of the Roman frontier, it was built first of turf and timber before being rebuilt in stone, and much of that stone has since been carried off to build farmhouses, churches and field walls. What survives is mostly buried, a faint line in the pasture or a slight ridge followed by a hedge. The vallum, the great earthwork that ran behind the wall, sometimes shows as a shallow trough in the fields. Yet this quiet stretch is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further east, and walking the Hadrian's Wall Path through it gives a sense of continuity across the whole country.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La comes up 64 km in. Next is Rise How tower 25a.
Hadrian's Wall does not simply stop at the Solway. Beyond Bowness, the Romans extended their frontier down the Cumbrian coast with a chain of milefortlets and towers, watching the shore against raiders crossing from what is now south-west Scotland. Rise How tower 25a is one of them, on the low cliffs just south of Maryport near Flimby, part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. Little is visible above ground, but standing here and looking out over the water, you can see why they bothered.
Read the complete Rise How tower 25a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
127 km in you reach Rise How tower 25a. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La, late in the day. Next is Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.
Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → Rise How tower 25a is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rise How tower 25a → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between Birky La → Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.