Coast to Coast

The Coast to Coast walk was created by the celebrated fell walker and guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright. Probably best known for his legendary Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, Wainwright completed his trek across the width of England in 1972. The following year the Westmorland Gazette published his handwritten guide. Since then the Coast to Coast Path has established itself as one of England’s classic long distance walks. It travels 193 miles, from the sea cliffs of St Bees on the Irish Sea, to the fishing village of Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea. The quality and variety of this walk is recognised internationally, with walkers travelling from around the globe to complete the walk.

As the route traverses the country, your two-week journey will take you through three national parks and over a real cross-section of England’s most dramatic landscapes. You’ll walk among the highest fells and alongside the largest lakes, through delightful woodland and over windswept moorland.

The Coast to Coast begins in the Lake District, taking in deep sided valleys, lake shores and tough mountain passes. There are a number of considerably steep sections here that will certainly test your stamina. Thankfully there’s a fine selection of tea rooms and cafés where you can treat yourself to a walkers reward. Next is the limestone country of the Yorkshire Dales, famous for its intricate field patterns and dry stone walls. The Dales topography is less extreme than that of the Lakes. The old market town of Richmond marks the end of the Dales, before the path crosses the Vale of York and rises over the sometimes remote, moorland hills of the North York Moors.

Sufficiently challenging and hugely rewarding, it’s little wonder that fifty years on from its conception, the Coast to Coast remains one of the most popular long distance walks in England.

Our Holidays

As well as the whole Coast to Coast Path, we offer the western and eastern sections as separate holidays. Described as ‘Lakes and Mountains’ and ‘Dales and Moors’, both are well worth undertaking in their own right, or you can choose to do half the route now and the other half later.

Please bear in mind that the distances each day are trail distances only. They do not take into account walking to your accommodation. On some days the accommodation might be on or close to the trail but on other days you may need to walk one or two miles to get to your overnight stop.

Our colleague Lynne has walked from Kirkby Stephen to Robin Hood’s Bay on the Coast to Coast. Read Lynne’s blog Lynne’s A-Z of the Coast to Coast: Dales and Moors