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.
A 72 km round trip from Silloth - roughly 1 h 14 in the saddle. On the way it passes Maryport Golf Course tower 22a, Parton Roman fort and back through Maryport Golf Course tower 22a. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Hadrian's Wall gets the fame, but the Roman frontier did not simply stop at Bowness-on-Solway. Beyond the end of the wall, a chain of milefortlets and towers continued down the Cumbrian coast, watching the Solway Firth for raiders from the north. Wolsty South, tower 13b, was one of them, a small stone watchtower near Silloth on the low, windy coast. There is little to see today, often just a mark in the ground, but the site is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listed by UNESCO, and its position tells a story: from here, Roman soldiers looked across the water to the hills of Scotland.
Read the complete Wolsty South tower 13b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wolsty South tower 13b is where the day begins. Next is Maryport Golf Course tower 22a.
Hadrian's Wall gets the fame, but the Romans kept watching long after it ended at Bowness. The coast of Cumberland, from the Solway to St Bees, was fitted with a line of forts, fortlets and watchtowers, each numbered in sequence, and Tower 22a is one of them. It stands on the cliff above Maryport, in a place that the golf course has swallowed, and what you will find is a modest earthwork or a marker rather than a standing tower. The Romans built Alauna, a fort at Maryport, on the high ground above the harbour, and the finds from it, a collection of seventeen carved altars buried in a pit, are displayed in the Senhouse Roman Museum in a former naval battery overlooking the sea.
Read the complete Maryport Golf Course tower 22a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maryport Golf Course tower 22a comes up about 13 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parton Roman fort.
Hadrian's Wall stopped at Bowness-on-Solway, but the Roman frontier did not. Down the Cumbrian coast, the army built a chain of forts, milefortlets and towers to watch the sea and stop raiders slipping round the end of the Wall, and Parton, just north of Whitehaven, was one of them. The fort is known from excavations and records rather than standing remains, and the coastal defences as a whole are included in the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Standing on the cliffs above the sea, you can see why the Romans worried: across the water lie the Isle of Man and, on clear days, the hills of Scotland.
Read the complete Parton Roman fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 36 km into the recorded legs you reach Parton Roman fort. Next is back through Maryport Golf Course tower 22a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maryport Golf Course tower 22a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Maryport Golf Course tower 22a, late in the day. Next is Wolsty South tower 13b.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wolsty South tower 13b write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Wolsty South tower 13b. That is the ride.
Wolsty South tower 13b → Maryport Golf Course tower 22a is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maryport Golf Course tower 22a → Parton Roman fort is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parton Roman fort → back through Maryport Golf Course tower 22a is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maryport Golf Course tower 22a → Wolsty South tower 13b is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.