Coast to Coast Walk Totally Explained

Everything about The Coast To Coast Walk totally explained

The Coast to Coast Walk is a 192-mile (according to a recent re-measuring the real distance is almost 220 miles) unofficial and mostly unsignposted long distance footpath in Northern England. Devised by Alfred Wainwright, it passes through three contrasting national parks: the Lake District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the North York Moors National Park. Wainwright recommends that walkers dip their booted feet in the Irish Sea at St Bees and, at the end of the walk, dip their naked feet in the North Sea at Robin Hood's Bay.
In 1991, the route was run in 39 hours 36 minutes and 52 seconds by Mike Hartley, setting a new record, and in 1985 Mike Cudahy completed it in 46 hours 49 minutes.

History and status

The Coast to Coast was described by A. Wainwright in his 1973 book "A Coast to Coast Walk". Due to legal issues with certain stretches of the path, increased traffic on some of the road sections, and erosion, the exact original route followed by Wainwright isn't recommended. Wainwright's book has been revised a number of times in recent years (most recently in 2003) to provide a route which avoids trespass.
Wainwright suggests a way of breaking the walk miles into stages, each of which to be completed in a day. With one or two rest days, this makes the route fit into a two-week holiday, and web logs of coast-to-coasters seem to indicate that this is still a very common way of splitting the route. However, Wainwright explicitly states that he didn't intend people to necessarily stick to these stages or even to his route: for example, by reducing day-lengths to 10 or 12 miles, the walk becomes a much easier three-week trip with time to "stand and stare".
Although unofficial, the Coast to Coast Walk uses public rights of way (public footpaths, tracks, and minor roads) and is one of the most popular of all the Long-distance footpaths in the UK. In 2004 the walk was named as the second best walk in the world according to a survey of experts.. Also in 2004 Ordnance Survey decided to stop publishing dedicated maps of the route as uneconomic suggesting that the route's popularity may be waning.

Route

This is given here from West to East - the most popular direction, given in the original and most of the current guides, and the direction which keeps the prevailing wind and rain at one's back, and the evening sun out of one's eyes.
The route starts on the Irish Sea coast, at St Bees in Cumbria, crosses the Lake District, the Pennines and the North York Moors, and ends on the North Sea coast at Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire. Some walkers however, start from the east coast, preferring to have the Lake District as the climax of their walk.

Lake District

From the small seaside town of St Bees, the route follows the cliffs North for a few miles before turning inland to meet a couple of small villages in the West Cumberland Plain. It climbs its first hill (Dent), and follows its first valley (Nannycatch) before reaching Ennerdale Bridge.
The path goes up the valley of Ennerdale along the edge of the lake and past the Black Sail Hut youth hostel. It climbs the almost vertical Loft Beck to the fells near Great Gable, passes the disused slate workings and mountain tramway, and dashes down to Longthwaite in Borrowdale.
To leave Borrowdale, the route goes through Stonethwaite and follows the stream up to Greenup Edge, before another dip and climb over the Helm Crag ridge and down to Grasmere village.
Wainwright offers a choice of climbs out of Grasmere: the mountains of Helvellyn or St Sunday Crag, or the pass (Grisedale Hause) between them, before dropping into Patterdale village.
From Patterdale, a stiff climb leads to Angle Tarn and Kidsty Pike—at 2,560 feet the highest point on the walk. There is then a steep drop to Haweswater and the route follows the shore of the lake before leaving the Lake District and visiting Shap Abbey and the village of Shap itself.

Westmorland and Yorkshire Dales

From Shap the route crosses the limestone pavement of the Westmorland limestone plateau to the village of Orton, and on to Kirkby Stephen.

The route climbs to the main West/East watershed (and Yorkshire border) on the ridge of "Nine Standards Rigg", but moorland trails and upland streams lead down into Swaledale. To help mitigate the effects of erosion, there are alternative routes at different times of the year. At almost exactly its halfway point, the Coast to Coast crosses the Pennine Way at Keld.

After Keld, there's then a choice of a high (open and breezy) or low (riverside, with teashops and pubs) routes, both of which lead to Reeth.

In lower Swaledale, the route passes Marrick Priory, through wooded hillside to the market town of Richmond.

Vale of Mowbray and North York Moors

After Richmond, the route runs close to the river Wiske (but is more direct) across the flat farming land of the Vale of Mowbray to the village of Danby Wiske, and on to Ingleby Cross.

The route then climbs to the edge of the North York Moors to join the Cleveland Way as it rises and falls to Clay Bank Top.

The route continues on the Cleveland Way, crossing Urra Moor to Bloworth Crossing, where The Cleveland way turns north and the Coast to Coast continues east to Blakey Ridge and the Lion Inn.

Next, the route continues across the moor before descending Glaisdale Rigg to the village of Glaisdale. From there, a woodland path leads to Egton Bridge where the route follows an old toll road to Grosmont.

After a climb out of Grosmont, the route crosses Sleights Moor before dropping into Little Beck Wood (with a hermitage carved out of a single boulder, and the Falling Foss waterfall). From there the route passes through Low and High Hawsker to the cliff tops of the east coast, where it rejoins the Cleveland Way. The path then follows the coast to the south to the village of Robin Hood's Bay.

Places of interest

The following hills are crossed by the route:

Dent

High Stile (variant)

Helm Crag

Helvellyn and St Sunday Crag (variants)

Kidsty Pike

Nine Standards Rigg

Cringle Moor/High Blakey Moor/Glaisdale Moor

Urra MoorFurther Information

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