Coast to Coast Path: British Walking Guide: Planning, Places to Stay, Places to Eat; Includes (British Walking Guides) - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Henry Stedman is a hiker of considerable experience, having hiked in many parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. He has been writing guidebooks for more than 15 years.

Henry Stedman is a hiker of considerable experience, having hiked in many parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. He has been writing guidebooks for more than 15 years.

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The Coast to Coast Path runs from St Bees on the Irish Sea for almost 200 miles (320km) across the width of Northern England to the North Sea at Robin Hood s Bay.

This spectacular two-week walk crosses three National Parks the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

The most complete guide with all the detail you ll need for a walk in Wainwright s footsteps .

The Sunday Times

...the Trailblazer series stands head, shoulders, waist and ankles above the rest.

They are particularly strong on mapping... The Sunday Times

Includes 109 walking maps the largest-scale maps available At a scale of just under 1:20,000 (8cm or 3-1/8 inches to one mile) these are bigger than the most detailed walking maps currently available in the shops.Unique mapping features walking times, directions, tricky junctions, places to stay and eat, points of interest. These are not general-purpose maps but fully-edited maps drawn by walkers for walkers.Itineraries for all walkers whether hiking the 191-mile route in its entirety or sampling the highlights on day walks or short breaks. Includes detailed public transport information for all access points.Practical information for all budgets what to see, where to stay, where to eat: pubs, hotels, B&B, camping, bunkhouses, hostels.GPS waypoints. These are also downloadable from the Trailblazer website.Now includes extra color sections: 16pp colour introduction and 16pp of colour mapping for stage sections (one stage per page) with trail profiles.|

The Coast to Coast Path runs from St Bees on the Irish Sea for almost 200 miles (320km) across the width of Northern England to the North Sea at Robin Hood s Bay.

This spectacular two-week walk crosses three National Parks the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

The most complete guide with all the detail you ll need for a walk in Wainwright s footsteps .

The Sunday Times

...the Trailblazer series stands head, shoulders, waist and ankles above the rest.

They are particularly strong on mapping... The Sunday Times

• Includes 109 walking maps the largest-scale maps available At a scale of just under 1:20,000 (8cm or 3-1/8 inches to one mile) these are bigger than the most detailed walking maps currently available in the shops.
• Unique mapping features walking times, directions, tricky junctions, places to stay and eat, points of interest. These are not general-purpose maps but fully-edited maps drawn by walkers for walkers.
• Itineraries for all walkers whether hiking the 191-mile route in its entirety or sampling the highlights on day walks or short breaks. Includes detailed public transport information for all access points.
• Practical information for all budgets what to see, where to stay, where to eat: pubs, hotels, B&B, camping, bunkhouses, hostels.
• GPS waypoints. These are also downloadable from the Trailblazer website.
• Now includes extra color sections: 16pp colour introduction and 16pp of colour mapping for stage sections (one stage per page) with trail profiles.

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Introduction

In devising a walk that would span the north of England from the Cumbrian coast to the North Sea, the legendary fell walker, guidebook writer and illustrator, Alfred Wainwright, created an enduring concept that 40 years later continues to inspire hikers in ever-growing numbers.

            Despite not being an official National Trail with all the support that entails, the Coast to Coast path has almost certainly become the most popular long-distance footpath in England. At around 200 miles (see box p17) it’s not the longest in the country and certainly doesn’t, as some mistakenly think, cross the country at its widest point. It makes no claim to being especially tough (though we can safely predict that those who attempt it in one go will find it sufficiently challenging). Nor does it, unlike the long-distance paths that run alongside Hadrian’s Wall or Offa’s Dyke, follow any ancient construction or border.

            In truth, the Coast to Coast is but one of an infinite number of routes that could be devised by joining the various footpaths and byways to form a trail across northern England and in doing so providing those who follow it with a snapshot of the country.

            But what a magnificent snapshot that is! Around two-thirds of the walk is spent in the national parks of the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. These parks encompass the most dramatic upland scenery in England, from its highest fells to its largest lakes, some of its most beautiful woods and parts of its bleakest, barest moors. The walk also passes through areas alive with some of Britain’s rarest wildlife, including red squirrels and otters, and even skirts around the eyrie of England’s last surviving golden eagle.

                Furthermore, where man has settled on the trail he has, on the whole, worked in harmony with nature to produce some of England’s finest villages, from idyllically situated Grasmere to unspoilt Egton Bridge. The trail itself is a further example of this harmony; these paths and bridleways have existed for centuries and though man-made, do not feel or look like an imposition on the landscape but are very much part of it.

            While these paths and villages continue to thrive under the steady stream of Coast to Coasters, in other places nature has reclaimed the poignant ruins of mills and mines, ancient Iron Age sites and mysterious stone circles which between them bear witness to thousands of years of human endeavour. They punctuate the path and provide absorbing highlights along the way.

            But the walker on the Coast to Coast path experiences additional, unquantifiable rewards. There is the pleasure of acquiring a developing level of fitness, the satisfaction of unravelling a route-finding conundrum and the relief when a hard-won day finally ends at the doorstep of a cosy B&B or in a centuries-old hostelry. Most memorably, it’s the cheery camaraderie shared by your fellow pilgrims bound for Robin Hood’s Bay and the window into the lives of the people who live and work in this fabulous landscape that stay with you as you transit the country from coast to coast.

Wainwright’s Coast to Coast path

The Coast to Coast path owes its existence to one man: Alfred Wainwright. It was in 1972 that Wainwright, already renowned for his exquisitely illustrated guides to walking in the Lake District, finally completed a trek across the width of England along a path of his own devising. It was an idea that he had been kicking around for a time: to cross his native land on a route that, as far as he was aware, would ‘commit no offence against privacy nor trample on the sensitive corns of landowners and tenants’. The result of his walk, a guidebook, was originally printed by his long-time publishers, The Westmoreland Gazette, the following year. It proved hugely successful. Indeed, a full twenty years after the book was first published, a television series of the trail was also made in which Wainwright himself starred, allowing a wider public to witness firsthand his wry, abrupt, earthy charm.

            Wainwright reminds people in his book that his is just one of many such trails across England that could be devised, and since Wainwright’s book other Coast to Coast walks have indeed been established. Yet it is still his trail that is by far and away the most popular, and in order to distinguish it from the others, it is now commonly known as Wainwright’s Coast to Coast path.

            The route has been amended slightly since 1973 mostly because, though careful to try to use only public rights of way, in a few places Wainwright’s original trail actually intruded upon private land. Indeed, even today the trail does in places cross private territory and it’s only due to the largesse of the landowners that the path has remained near-enough unchanged throughout its 200 miles.

            Though the trail passes through three national parks, crosses the Pennine Way and at times joins with both the Lyke Wake Walk and the Cleveland Way, it’s not itself one of the 15 national trails in the UK, nor is it likely to become one anytime soon. What is certain is that despite this lack of official support, the Coast to Coast has become one of the most popular of Britain’s long-distance paths, with estimates of up to 10,000 people attempting it annually.

How difficult is the Coast to Coast path?

Undertaken in one go the Coast to Coast path is a long, tough walk. Despite the presence of some fairly steep gradients, every mile is ‘walkable’ and no mountaineering or climbing skills are necessary. All you need is some suitable clothing, a bit of money, a backpack full of determination and a half-decent pair of calf muscles. In the 200-odd miles from seashore to seashore you’ll have ascended and of course descended the equivalent height of Mount Everest.

            That said, the most common complaint we’ve received about this book, particularly from North American readers, is that it doesn’t emphasise how tough it can be. So let us be clear: the Coast to Coast is a tough trek, particularly if undertaken in one go. Ramblers describe it as ‘challenging’ and they’re not wrong. When walkers begin to appreciate just how tough the walk can be, what they’re really discovering is the...