Whatever the weather, the sight of the sea at Robin Hood’s Bay means triumph for walkers after 190 miles in Alfred Wainwright’s footsteps on the famous Coast to Coast Walk. Fifty years after Wainwright’s iconic book was published, Victoria Benn meets devotees who have walked the walk
Tracing an ‘approximate beeline’ from one side of England to the other, the Coast to Coast, fondly known as the C2C, stretches from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay in the North York Moors. Already accommodating more than 6,000 visitors a year, its appeal is set to multiply further following its upgrade to National Trail status in 2025.
The 190-mile ‘walk’ was originally devised by Alfred Wainwright, renowned fell walker, author and illustrator who published it in 1973 as A Coast to Coast Walk, a beautiful little book, which is still printed as Wainwright intended with his own sketched maps and illustrations.
Describing the route as ‘beautiful almost everywhere’, Wainwright also said: ‘The way you go and the time it takes matters not, the essence of the walk is the crossing of England from one coast to the other,’ which evokes his sense of wonder and thirst for discovery perfectly.
As a long-distance walking route, the C2C is unique, traversing three National Parks and taking users over high fells and mountain peaks, through valleys and alongside rivers before its final leg across heather moorlands to the dramatic cliffs and stunning vistas of Robin Hood’s Bay. There is also some of England’s richest history en route, including iron-age hillforts, mysterious cairns, medieval castles and the 10th-century Yorkshire village of Ingleby Cross.
You might think the ultimate reward for walking, running or cycling through 190 miles of fresh air and nature would be fish and chips straight out of the paper overlooking the sea, but for some the experience has made an even bigger mark…
CLAIRE A NTROBUS ran it solo in seven days
Inspiration for completing the C2C came from finding an original copy of Alfred Wainwright’s A Coast to Coast Walk. It’s such a beautiful book and that cover where he’s drawn a line from one coast to the other just totally appealed.
I’ve cycled coast to coast in the Pyrenees, but something about doing this one on foot really attracted me. It was also around the time that Jasmin Paris won the Spine Race so that inspired me to take it on as a solo challenge, although I also co
