A Northern Coast to Coast Walk

This guidebook follows England's Coast to Coast walk, popularised by Wainwright, which runs from St Bees Head in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay on Yorkshire’s east coast. At 178 miles (300km), this popular long-distance walk can be easily walked within a two-week holiday. Third edition of this successful guide.

Credit where credit is due: when in 1973 Wainwright devised his Coast to Coast Walk across Northern England, it was a masterpiece of inspiration, a touch of genius – if not of concept, then of line – and it would be difficult if not impossible to link the two chosen ends by a more satisfying route. It is a tantalising and inspiring excursion, to rank with the finest of this country's long-distance walks. The man himself said it was but one coast to coast walk – that walkers could devise their own. Maybe so, but as a tribute to its quality its enthusiasts grow by the year, while 'alternatives' remain pale and few in comparison.

The walk runs as close to ruler-straight as Wainwright could devise, from the Irish Sea lapping the shores of Cumbria at St Bees, to where the waters of the North Sea flow into Robin Hood's Bay on the Yorkshire Coast, a distance of just over 300km (190 miles). It's certainly not a walk on which to cut one’s teeth as a backpacker (the Dales Way or even the West Highland Way would be much more fitting for that), but one on which seasoned walkers will experience little difficulty.

Introduction to the Third Edition

The route was revisited in its entirety during 2005, and where necessary amendments made to the route description and some of the background notes. The whole book has been rewritten, with more than 50 per cent new or revised material, but if my original text is still valid it has been left intact.

This version of Wainwright's walk sticks very closely to the original line, with a few minor tweaks, and accommodating changes that have become possible, sensible or necessary in later years, including many made available by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, and the introduction of Access Land across much of the high ground of the route. However, I have opted for the much safer and significantly more beautiful low-level route through Swaledale, rather than grinding across the moors above, and I've also ditched all the road walking through the Vale of Mowbray (as I had done in the first edition) – there's just no need for it. Even so, where I have dropped parts of the original line, I still provide them in Appendix A for Wainwright devotees (there are cross-references to Appendix A where relevant).

The various high-level alternatives I provided in earlier editions, notably in the Lake District, have also been omitted – this book concentrates on the Coast to Coast Walk itself. You can easily work out variations for yourself, but my guess is that most people want to do the basic walk and just that.

The Route in Brief

Opening with a lofty scamper around the edge of St Bees Head, the first day, usually taken as far as Ennerdale Bridge, samples the delights of coastal walking before heading inland to the western fringe of Lakeland. The leg-buckling slopes of the minor summit, Dent fell, on a warm day especially, come as something of a joke, but beyond that one of Lakeland's hidden gems, Uldale and Nannycatch Beck, compensates amply on the run in to Ennerdale.

Ennerdale marks the entry, if you like, to Lakeland proper, and pushes far into the heart of steep-sided mountains, to the great summits of Pillar and Great Gable that lie at Ennerdale’s head. Then, with a daunting flourish, the walk engages the short-lived wrath of Loft Beck as it hauls itself across the fells to Borrowdale, coming first by a back road into Seatoller, and then by a charming traverse to Rosthwaite, as much on the traditional tourist route as Black Sail Youth Hostel in the deep sanctum of Ennerdale is off it.

By enterprising leaps the walk visits Langstrath, crosses by Greenup Edge to Far Easedale and Grasmere, before crossing to Patterdale by Grisedale Tarn.

Beyond Patterdale the route clings as long as it can to the high ground, before throwing in its hand and dropping to the shores of Haweswater, preparing, inevitably, to leave the beauties of Lakeland behind.

Understandably, for it was his greatest and first love, Wainwright was inclined to feel that once the Lake District was left, the finest had gone, though he did ‘not concede that the rest of the journey is in the nature of anticlimax’. If the truth is known, what lies ahead is every bit as enchanting, captivating, and spiritually reviving as Lakeland, qualities derived, if not from the ruggedness of the landscape, then from its sublime insinuation into our senses, its soft and outstandingly beautiful insistence on playing its part in this drama, with equal rights to top billing.

And quite rightly so! If you think all the beauty is in the Lake District, you are in for an agreeable surprise.

The sensitivity of the landscape and the environment between Shap and Kirkby Stephen has led to alternative lines being introduced to protect important areas, and once the delights of Kirkby Stephen are left behind, new lines lead by Faraday Gill on to Nine Standards Rigg, and then by Whitsundale to Keld at the head of Swaledale, arguably one of the finest of the dales.

Preferring a lofty traverse between Keld and Reeth, the original line makes what it can of the old mining routes that abound in this historically fascinating region, while, for those who prefer a valley route, the flower-decked meadows along the River Swale are second to none. But, beyond the industrial archaeology, there is little to repay the effort of the climbs onto the moors, and the often misty conditions that prevail. So, in this edition, the preferred route is the valley way, with the high-level route given as an option (see Appendix A).

Between Reeth and Richmond there abound limestone scars, leafy lanes, woodland and rich pastures, while Richmond itself seems to remain aloof from the 21st century in many ways, retaining much of its great historical flavour, centred on its castle.

The ensuing Vale of Mowbray is quite simply delightful, and forms a lengthy link between the Dales and the North York Moors, although approaching marathon distance in length. There is for some a temptation to race across the vale, but that is to do it a disservice. It is a quiet and remarkable interlude, across which this book fashions a lazy route, linking farms and villages, rather than simply rushing round the roads.

As the journey goes on, so the Cleveland Hills approach, and an unrivalled crossing of the North York Moors lies in wait. Superb views enliven the way, which here proves rather more undulating than might be expected.

Beyond Clay Bank Top the walking is effortless, with only the pull on to Urra Moor demanding any head of steam. After that, leg-swinging freedom, partly along the line of a former mineral railway, is the order of the day, with expansive views across rolling moorland to cheer the spirit and prepare for the final stage of the journey.

The concluding stage is as fitting as the first, and finds its way along old toll roads, by way of ancient burial mounds, across tracts of heather moorland, through ancient, time-worn villages, delightful woodland, until, at the very end, the walker is faced, as he or she was in the beginning, with an exhilarating clifftop walk to the beauty that is Robin Hood's Bay.
   
The Coast to Coast Walk is, as Keats observed:
        A thing of beauty...a joy for ever….

Make sure you experience it.