banner
home guide ldp stay links guest
Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk
Coast to Coast Map

West to East

This is the direction Alfred Wainwright designed the walk to be done. He said "you are best doing the walk with the prevailing wind at your backs". This way takes you straight into the Lake District with the hardest work done in the first four days. If you would like to get the hardest work out of the way first then this is the way for you.

Follow my Tracks with free route downloads!
You can follow the entire route I took on this Coast to Coast journey by downloading the Memory Map Route (.mmo) files that are available for free on each stage report webpage. In some instances I've plotted out an alternative route should you choose to divert from the path I took. Whichever way you choose I hope you enjoy the Coast to Coast walk as much as I did.

View my photographic journal of this walk

East To West

This is the course I first took on the Coast to coast walk and it is the direction I prefer as it provides a splendid Lake District finale. The route helps you 'run yourself in' to the walk by tackling the North York Moors first, a good challenge but not as severe a start as the other course. And I never found the prevailing wind a problem during my east to west journey.

Follow my Tracks with free route downloads!
You can also follow the entire route I took on this first Coast to Coast journey by downloading the Memory Map Route (.mmo) files that are available for free on each stage report webpage. Again, in some instances I've plotted out an alternative route from the path I took and once again whichever way you choose I hope you enjoy the Coast to Coast walk as much as I did.

View my photographic journal of this walk
This classic long distance walk was devised by Alfred Wainwright in 1972. It is a classic and quite rightly has become one of the most popular long distance walks in the British isles. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the walk has distinct starting and finishing points as it starts on the west coast of Northern England and finishes on the east coast of Northern England. Hence the obvious title 'Coast to Coast'. Secondly, the walk makes its way through three of the finest national parks in the country, the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. All three parks are distinctly different. The Lake District is rocky with the highest hills and largest lakes in England. The Yorkshire Dales are covered in a mixture of limestone and gritstone with challenging hills of its own albeit on the scale of the Lake District. The North York Moors are predominantly heather moorland with rolling hills with dales of lush greenery.

The Coast to Coast is about 190 miles long depending on the variations chosen on some of the legs. It is designed to be walked in 12-14 days. Accommodation on the walk is readily available as the popularity of the walk has encouraged the growth of guest houses, bed and breakfast, bunk houses and camping facilities along the route. I think it is a fantastic walk, so much so that I have done it twice, the first time from east to west and then again 5 years later from west to east. If you are going to do one long distance walk and you have not decided which to do then I recommend you choose this one. It will give you the bug to do others.

Valid XHTML 1.0!
This site conforms to W3C XHTML 1.0, HTML 4.0 and CSS standards.

logo
Copyright © 2003 - 2010 Walking Englishman. All rights reserved.

Valid CSS!
This page is built using validated W3C XHTML 1.0 & CSS codes.