114km Hadrian's Cycleway -Silloth to Once Brewed
The Irish Sea beyond Whitehaven’s Sea Wall
Ride overview
Riding into the Northumberland National Park
By any measure, this is a magnificent day’s riding. The morning is spent riding on the ultra-flat coastal roads of the Solway Firth. The Salt marshes are internationally important with tens of thousands of migrating birds spending their winters poking around in the muddy waters. The official beginning of Hadrian’s Wall is at Bowness-on-Solway (you ride through a gap in the old earth wall). By lunch time you’ll be in Carlisle, (where you could easily end the day if you were keen to visit the castle, Cathedral and the Tullie, a superb museum housing not just many roman treasures, but also an important collection of art from the pre-Raphaelites). Clearly marked cycle paths take you through Carlisle and onto empty country lanes through the lush pasturelands of the aptly named Eden Valley. Then the highlight - literally - for you once up the appropriately named Banks, you ride in high and dramatic countryside right beside the Wall.
If 114km is too much for one day, Carlisle (55km) makes for a very half way stop for the night. There’s a good range of accommodation in the city and there’s plenty to see and enjoy, not least the castle, cathedral and Tullie, one of Northern England’s finest museums.
Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Silloth DISTANCE: 114km TOTAL ASCENT: 972m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: Traffic-free cycle lanes, and quiet roads. A gravel/touring/hybrid bike with 28mm tyres or more RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS: Carlisle; Cathedral Cafe, Once Brewed: The Twice Brewed Inn RECOMMENDED STAYS: Once Brewed: Twice Brewed Inn, YHA The Sill NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Carlisle PLACES TO VISIT; Carlisle: Castle, Cathedral, Tullie, Birdoswald: Birdoswald Fort, LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: The Solway Firth, Coast and Castles, National Cycle Network Route 6
There are few places along the Firth for re-supply, so make sure you carry enough food and drink to last you until Carlisle.
Ride Notes
The Solway Coast and Western Cumbria
The Solway Coast is a National Landscape, a place of tidal salt marsh, creeks and sand dunes. It is a place where you make friends with the coastal wind. It’ll bring salty air to your lungs, and either push you along at a tremendous gallop, or tease you as it nudges and shoves from the side, or if it’s really frisky, it’ll be a head-on blast. But since the road twists this way and that, you may well experience all three windy states.
After Cardurnock, you ride past a disused WWII airfield, where there’s a collection of very tall and thin masts with what seem to be high trapeze wires strung up between them. This is Anthorn Radio Station which forms an integral link in NATO’s submarine communications.
Edward I
Riding alongside the Solway estuary, there are fabulous views of Scotland on the other side. At Bowness-on-Solway, The Wall begins (or ends) and the road cuts through a small earthwork, for not all the wall was made of stone. Here, on the marshes, Edward I, the so-called ‘Hammer of the Scots’ died. There is a striking memorial, the only high point on the landscape, marking the place where he died. The exact nature of his illness is unknown, but it was according to contemporary accounts, painful and prolonged. Records detail the purchases of potions made to alleviate the suffering of the king, such as pomegranate cordial with crushed amber, musk, and pearls. Even powdered gold and silver were added to the cocktails. All to no avail.
Carlisle is good place to halt if you’ve had enough of wind or need to shelter from the rain, or indeed if the suggested full 114km is too far to manage in one day. The castle is over a 1000 years old, the gem of a cathedral - the second smallest in England - and the Tullie museum filled as it is with Pre-Raphaelite paintings and Roman finds.
Lanercost ~Priory
Well marked cycle paths take you through the city and onto the lush pastures of the Eden valley. Grand farm houses, looking more stately homes than cattle farms, are scattered across the land. You ride over medieval pack-horse bridges and past the picturesque Lanercost Priory, where a sickening Edward I holed up for his final winter.
Gradually the road rises towards the uplands and at the well-named Banks, (a steep climb, especially when you’re loaded with panniers) you arrive, finally, at The Wall, a lumpy line of stone which accompanies you over the gently rolling hills.
Birdowald
The first of the ‘big three’ forts is Birdsworld Roman Fort, a recommended stop from pedalling. There is a cafe here too, and an informative museum.
The Official Route takes you along country lanes through perfectly pleasant scenery to the day’s end at Once Brewed. However, if you are excited by the thought of riding close to The Wall, of riding in the lea of Whin Sill, the 500 million year old volcanic cliff, of experiencing farm tracks and narrow roads across wild sheep-shorn moorland, stick with the route I’ve given.
Thirlwall Common
At the eponymous Inn where beer has been brewed for over 500 years, you’ll rest up for the night. (There’s a Youth Hostel nearby if that is the more appealing option). The area is designated a ‘dark sky’ region and the Inn has a star gazing programme. (Best to book ahead.) For a city dweller like me, the darkness of the night and illuminations of the sky are surreal. The really fortunate may even see the Northern Lights here.
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