Walking Tours in united-kingdom
Coast to Coast (15 days)
* ‘One of the World’s Great Walks’
* Walking from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay
* English Lake District, Pennines and North York Moors
This classic route was originated and described by A. Wainwright, author of a well-known series of mountain-walking guide books on the Lake District. The walk starts on the Irish Sea coast of Cumbria near the huge red sandstone cliffs of St. Bees Head. You cross three National Parks before reaching the North Sea at the pretty fishing village of Robin Hood’s Bay on the rocky coastline of the North York Moors.
Tradition has it that you dip your boots in the Irish Sea and take a pebble to deposit in the North Sea at the end of your walk. That should confuse geologists a few thousand years hence. The first few days take you over some of the most rugged, beautiful terrain of the Lake District, by way of the idyllic lakeland valleys of Borrowdale, Grasmere (Wordsworth lived here) and Patterdale, close to Ullswater Lake. You pass Helvellyn, England's most popular mountain, and the mountain oddly named High Street, along which the Roman Legions marched on their way to Hadrian's Wall.
After leaving the Lake District you cross a gentler landscape round Shap and Orton. Beyond the quaint market town of Kirkby Stephen you enter the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Two days are then spent walking through the long valley of Swaledale, with its dry stone walls and unspoilt villages. You reach the historic town of Richmond with its cobbled streets, sloping market square and famous castle perched above the River Swale.
Beyond the arable farm land of the Vale of York, you ascend on to the heather moorlands of the North York Moors, a region of long vistas and easy walking. After crossing the wooded valley of Eskdale you reach the dramatic cliffs of the North Sea Coast. The last few miles follow the scenic clifftop path to the red-roofed village of Robin Hood's Bay. With an extra night here, you can relax on the beach or visit nearby Whitby with its ruined abbey (associated with the Dracula legend) and its Captain Cook Museum.
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