hadrians wall

[fatboysoontobeslim]

anyone ever do this?? hoping to do it before the years out over a weekend fri/sat, any routes appreciated and is it suitable to do on a road bike?? also anyone reccomend any decent b and b along the way cheers

 

[ufkacbln]

Excellent route, I did it over 5 days because I wanted to visit specific places and spend time.


Lots of info here

 

[HJ]

I fancy giving that one a go sometime...

 

[Telemark]

I fancy giving that one a go sometime...

so do I ...

Mcshroom of this parish is from near Whitehaven ... he might have some first hand experience of the route?

T

 

[Darryl]

Did it over 3 days on a Brompton, mainly following the Sustrans route although it is possible to stay closer to the wall on main roads in some places

 

[zacklaws]

I was lucky to have worked just outside Carlisle last year for a couple of months and cycled a lot and drove around the area and it is quite eye opening. From what I understand it is the Western side of the country that is the most preserved and not that much on the Eastern side as it all got robbed or used to build the road as hardcore between Newcastle and Carlisle before it got stopped. Its not just the Wall itself though, there is also Chesters, Housesteads, Birdoswald and Vindolanda etc to explore and all are in close proximity to the wall.

I only had a road bike and in a few places mainly around Birdoswald towards Brampton your in spitting distance off the wall for a few miles, but most of it is inaccesable for a road bike, but I think there is a trail for MTB's but do not know where it goes and saw no evidence of it close to the wall.

One of the best preserved and scenic area's on the wall, is Wall Town Craggs, but I think it is only walkable as I never saw any tracks that a cyclist could use. You can cycle alongside on the course of the old Roman road but it is some distance away but you can see ithe wall on top of the ridgeline. The Roman road is dangerous though at times. As it is dead straight, just going up and down hills, it becomes a race track, but also the parallel road to the South, A699, I think or something similar, is even more dangerous and I was advised to keep off it but when I did venture onto it, I had to agree its suicidal, but for a tour of the wall, I think there may be no reason to use it at all, maybe on the Eastern side there may be.

At Chesters, there is a carving of a Phallus in a flag stone which if you stand on it its supposed to bring you good luck, but it did not work for me, but there again it might have done and I'll never know, perhaps I was scheduled to get run over by a lorry that day but it never happened.

 

[mcshroom]

It is a very nice route, especially the section between Carlisle and Hexham up in the Pennines, and the coastal section between Maryport and Allonby.

I rode the whole route with a group of friends from work over 4 days in June. The route is definitely doable in 2 days, in fact the Consett Clowns did last year on mountain bikes, but we took a bit longer as we were new to cycle touring and wanted to have a look around.

Travel to Ravenglass on the train is on a Northern Rail Sprinter, which has officially 2 cycle spaces which are not reservable. In practice the train often carries more than that, we took 4 on it and at one point in the spring there were 10 of us on the train, the guards are very accomodating where they can be. The only issue you may have is the early morning trains from Barrow-in-Furness to Sellafield can be crowded, otherwise the trains have a decent amount of space.

At the other end, unless your on a folder, bikes are not allowed on the Metro in Newcastle so there is a 10 mile trip back to Newcastle Central Station from either of the Eastern finish points.

A vast majority of the track is a good paved/hardpack surface, but there are a couple points to watch if you are looking at using a full road bike these are: -

• The coast path at Sellafield
• The riverside section in Carlisle

The Sellafield coast path is bumpy and sandy as it runs through the dunes. There isn't an easy diversion available short of climbing up a 14% hill on the main road, but it is rideable with care (one of our group was on a CAAD 8 with 25mm tyres on and was ok)

The Carlisle stretch is muddy and cut up. I would actually recommend taking the off road diversion route through Carlisle described at the bottom of this page.

There's also a rough road next to Vindolanda but it's rideable.

Accomodation wise we stayed in West View Guesthouse in Silloth on Solway, Sands House in Brampton and the Station Inn in Hexham. West View was a very nice B&B and the couple that ran it were very nice. It also had a garage around the back to lock the bikes in. Sands house is an old pub that is being coverted. The room we stayed in was a little rough around the edges decor wise, but was clean and warm and the owner was friendly. Also they allowed us to store the bikes in the reception of the house inside. The station inn was our least favourite with tired rooms and the lock up being across the road and in a yard with an old wooden door hiding it from the street, but it was servicable.

Other than that I would advise stocking up on drinks in Silloth (there's a Coop just off the main route) or Abbeytown ('Premier' newsagents type shop) as there's a long gap between these villages and Carlisle where very little is likely to be open, and also I would recommend having a look round Vindolanda Roman fort.

That covers most things on the Western side I hope, but there are some Northumbrians on here who should have a bit more detail on the Eastern side

 

[fatboysoontobeslim]

hey folks my apologies first not repplying sooner but my mother is ill in hospital and ive been visitng most days/evenings. i really appreciate the effort you have gone to in sharing you're experience and knowledge of this tour, it is greatly appreciated by me and my friend who i will be travelling with. just need to sort out a long weekend to do it and hopefully this year. its sites like this that are invaluable to newbies and the more experienced cyclists. i thank each and every one of you again.
it really looks like a good trip to do and one of interest. no doubt i will print this page off and utilise the information you have kindly shared, i tilt my hat to you and thanks again

 

[billflat12]

Hope things are ok for your mum , I Rode the 174 mile sustrans route over 3 days in the last week of august with full camping gear etc, loaded with 4 panniers on a hybrid shod with 37c continental contact tyres, we parked up in the free public car park next to the ratty in ravensglass, (very handy for a quick pint) the shoreline near seascale/sellafield was a plastic honeycomb matting over sand which i found ok, but i would imagine when windy it would quickly become covered with sand, the problem we had was front low-riders catching vegetation along here as it was narrow in places, also the bridge near workington was washed away in last years floods so you will need to take another route over the river, (we used the new army bridge) there was also a few signs missing between siloth and bowness-on-soloway which was quite remote ( the local organisers of the august soulfest festival had dug a few up and stashed them in a nearby field) , at carlisle the river route was quite nice really just a bit muddy in places but ride-able with care, would advise you to watch out for wet weather beforehand , the route after carlisle starts to climb over the pennines especially after brampton at banks turret or near the roman museum at greenhead and again up to the Vindolanda roman fort offering opportunities for visiting/resting near the many roman ruins along this section, there is also ample cafe,s through all the villages on route from carlisle, after hexham it was mosly level with mostly dedicated cyclepaths along old railways, or paths along the banks of the tyne, there was a choice of 2 finishes tynemouth or the very good arbia roman fort & free museum in south shields. we camped in south shields itself so took the new millennium bridge over the tyne and cycled along the south bank route 15 , mainly because the cycle tunnel escalators where being renovated, there is also quite a few motorcycle barriers to negotiate through Newcastle itself , we also took a ferry crossing at south shields (£1.15) on our return journey back to the main station near to the millennium bridge, here we used the northern rail service, think we paid £24 for the anytime single back to ravenglass changing at carlisle. it,s a very good route in all i,m sure you,ll enjoy doing it, a problem you may have if you leave it till too late in the year is the shorter hours of daylight, just wished we could have allowed more time myself just to see more really, we also met a cyclist from norway staying at our campsite in shields, came off a ferry into newcastle, he was heading north upto scotland.

 

[Cush]

I rode along the roads and walked the Wall before Hadrian became an Opto (Roman Lance Corpral) long before either became known trails and have never tired of them. The route is improved beyond belive and though it can be a trifle tough in one or two places. Just follow the roads and you will get from the Solway to the Tyne but I would ignore the Sustran route between Carlisle and Brampton and either follow the roads North of the Eden or if you have time take a wide sweep up in to Bewcastle or up to Alston and Hartside. At the other end, be careful on the cycle track through Newcastle (make sure you are not wearing Red & White) or cross the Tyne at Wylam and follow the trails in to Newcastle via Gatehead Metro centre. After looking round Tynemouth make a point of crossing the Shields ferry before either riding back to Newcastle or heading South to Sunderland.

 

[Danny]

I did the ride over 3.25 days on an audax style bike with 28" tyres, and saw plenty of people on pure road bikes covering the same route.

I am not sure if the OP was suggesting doing the ride in just two days. If so, I think this could be ambitious particularly when the days get short.

 

[fatboysoontobeslim]

thanks again folks for the info. we are probably going to do this ride over 3 days a bit more if necessary, i take on board what people are saying about the days getting shorter and this is something we will have to consider when we decide to go, its something we have wanted to do for several years but keep putting it off for various reasons but hopefully we will crack it thanks again

 

[zizou]

I did it a couple of weeks back and it was a really nice ride. Although my cycle computer went haywire for about 5 miles either side of the big radio masts at cardurnock!