Why this ride
286 km from Greenhead to Greenhead, about 4 h 23 of riding. It goes by way of Herd Hill North, The English Lake District and back through Herd Hill North. It strings together lakeside roads.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Willowford Roman temporary camp and The English Lake District
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 286 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 23
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Herd Hill North → The English Lake District
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 70 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 84 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Willowford Roman temporary camp
Rivers move, and the Irthing at Willowford proves it. When the Romans built the Wall here, they carried it across the river on a bridge, and the massive stone abutment of that bridge survives on the east bank, now well away from the water, because the river has shifted west over the centuries. Nearby, the earthwork outline of a Roman temporary camp, one of many marching camps built by units on campaign or on construction duty, lies in the fields. Temporary camps were ramparts of turf and ditches thrown up for a few nights or weeks, and their faint shapes are often best seen from the air or in low winter light.
Read the complete Willowford Roman temporary camp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Willowford Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Herd Hill North.
2. Herd Hill North
Bowness-on-Solway is the western end of Hadrian's Wall, a quiet village on a low headland above the estuary, and Herd Hill lies a little farther along the shore on the Cardurnock peninsula. Roman engineers built the wall to Bowness, where the fort of Maia stood, and then continued the defences south along the Cumbrian coast with milefortlets and towers. The northern watchtower on this hill was one of the chain that watched across the water to Scotland, at a place where the Solway is narrow enough to be forded at low tide.
Read the complete Herd Hill North write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Herd Hill North comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is The English Lake District.
3. The English Lake District
Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud round here, and anybody who has ridden the Lake District on a wet bank holiday will understand the appeal of being lonely. The English Lake District, listed by UNESCO in 2017 as a cultural landscape, is a compact knot of mountains, lakes and valleys in Cumbria, shaped by glaciers and then by centuries of sheep farming, slate quarrying and, from the late eighteenth century, by poets, painters and tourists who came looking for the sublime.
Read the complete The English Lake District write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach The English Lake District. Next is back through Herd Hill North.
4. back through Herd Hill North
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Herd Hill North write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Herd Hill North, late in the day. Next is Willowford Roman temporary camp.
5. Willowford Roman temporary camp
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Willowford 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 at Willowford Roman temporary camp. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Willowford Roman temporary camp to Herd Hill North
Willowford Roman temporary camp → Herd Hill North is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Herd Hill North to The English Lake District
Herd Hill North → The English Lake District is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The English Lake District to back through Herd Hill North
The English Lake District → back through Herd Hill North is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Herd Hill North to Willowford Roman temporary camp
back through Herd Hill North → Willowford Roman temporary camp is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.