Lyke Wake Walk
The ultimate North York Moors challenge walk — a 40-mile route designed to be completed within a 24-hour window across challenging, boggy, and demanding moorland. With map, statistics, and GPX route file.
Statistics and Files
Grid Ref: SE 467 992
Distance: 40 miles (64 km)
Time: 12–24 hours
Duration: 1–2 days
Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps (1:25,000):
OL26 North York Moors – Western Area
OL27 North York Moors – Eastern Area
Summary
The Lyke Wake Walk is a challenge walk across the highest and widest part of the North York Moors National Park in north-east Yorkshire, England. It has an associated club that maintains its own social structure, culture, and rituals based on the walk, drawing on Christian and folklore traditions from the area. To the people of North Yorkshire, the walk has become a notable ritual and a popular choice for charity and sponsorship events. Enthusiastic walkers have tackled the route with quirky handicaps such as carrying a sack of coal, being blindfolded, or even bound with a partner for a three-legged walk.
The walk begins near Osmotherley and heads in a west-to-east direction across the North York Moors to Ravenscar on the Yorkshire coast. Significant waypoints along the route include Round Hill, Carlton Moor, the Wain Stones, Bloworth Crossing, Farndale Moor, High Blakey Moor, Rosedale Moor, White Moor, Wheeldale Moor, Howl Moor, Simon Howe, Eller Beck, and Fylingdales Moor.