Watchclose Roman temporary camp and Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
125 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 55
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 Carlisle it runs 125 km to Carlisle; allow about 1 h 55 of riding. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel, Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 and back through Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Watchclose Roman temporary camp
East of Carlisle, between the villages of Brampton and Wetheral, the countryside rolls gently towards the Pennines, with green fields, hedges and patches of woodland. Somewhere in these fields lie the faint traces of Watchclose, a Roman temporary camp, one of many marching camps built by soldiers on campaign or during the construction of Hadrian's Wall. These camps were enclosed by a ditch and bank and used for a night or a season, and today they are often visible only from the air or as slight undulations in the grass. Watchclose is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchclose Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel.
2. Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
Around Haltwhistle the wall country becomes the landscape everyone imagines: the Whin Sill, a long ridge of hard volcanic dolerite, rears up in a series of cliffs facing north, and the Romans used it as a ready-made rampart, running their stone wall along the very top. Between the crags and the road the vallum ditch runs across the fields as a broad, clear trench, and from any high point you can see the whole military system laid out: crag, wall, road and ditch side by side.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp.
3. Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp
Look for a faint rectangle in the rough grass north of the Military Road, a few kilometres west of Chollerford, and you will have found Brown Dikes, one of a cluster of Roman temporary camps on the high ground above the North Tyne. Nothing stands here, no walls or gates, only low earthworks that the grazing sheep have softened over nearly two thousand years. But these camps are among the most evocative traces of the Roman army in Britain, because they mark where soldiers actually slept and worked while the frontier was being built and garrisoned.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632.
4. Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
East of Hexham, the Roman frontier crosses gentler country, a rolling landscape of fields, hedges and small woods north of the Tyne valley. Here the Wall itself has mostly disappeared, its stones long since recycled into farmhouses, field walls and the eighteenth-century Military Road that runs along its line. But the vallum, the broad ditch with mounds on either side that marked the southern edge of the military zone, survives in places as a clear earthwork across the fields, and walkers on the Hadrian's Wall Path follow it for miles. This section is part of the same World Heritage site as the dramatic crags further west.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchclose Roman temporary camp closes the day.
Leg by leg
Watchclose Roman temporary camp to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
Watchclose Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel to Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp to Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632
Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 to back through Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the B632 → back through Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp to back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel
back through Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel to Watchclose Roman temporary camp
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the fiel → Watchclose Roman temporary camp is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.