Stretching for 190 miles (although modern GPS systems used on the route make it nearer 220 miles) between St. Bees on the Irish Sea coast and Robin Hood’s Bay on the coast of the North Sea, Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk takes in three National Parks and encompasses scenery of the highest order from Lakeland mountains and lakes to bleak moorland with wooded walks, riverside paths and cliff top promenades thrown in for good measure.

The route was created in the early 1970s by the guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright who was already renowned for his Pictorial Guides to the Lake District. The path follows existing footpaths and bridleways throughout the vast majority of its distance with only a short amount of road walking. Wainwright himself encouraged walkers to ‘make additional detours, to short-cut corners or even follow their own course for lengthy distances' along the Coast to Coast.

"Such personal initiatives are to be encouraged – if they do not involve trespass" A. Wainwright MBE

At the time Wainwright created the walk he believed it to be entirely on publicly accessible land and rights of ways, and many years later the route has needed to be changed in places to take into account legal issues such as instances of trespass, road walking on roads which were a lot quieter in the early seventies and cases of erosion. It is not, for this reason, recommended that you follow the original route as laid out in Wainwright's 1973 edition of the walk but get hold of the latest edition of a guidebook as you can.

The Coast to Coast walk was originally split into 12 day sections by Wainwright with distances being determined by the terrain and height gain on that particular day. Today many folk still walk these stages and add in a couple of rest days to recover or to explore a particular place such as Grasmere or Richmond. You can of course opt to walk the route over a longer or shorter (the record being set by Mike Hartley in 1991 when the route was run in 39 hours 36 minutes and 52 seconds) and many people even do 2 or 3 sections at a time when family or work commitments allow.



Much of the appeal of the Coast to Coast walk lies not only in its varied and dramatic scenery but the marks left by man on the landscape over the centuries such as ruins of mines and mills,  and the many stone circles and ancient villages originally inhabited by Iron Age man. Indeed, much of the route is on ancient tracks which have existed for centuries.

Despite thousands of people each year attempting the walk making it one of the most popular long distance walks in Britain it is still an ‘un-official’ route and not part of Britain’s National Trail. The Wainwright Society and others have pushed for the route to be made part of the National Trail and enjoy the protection and benefits that this will offer but whether this will happen or not is a matter of debate.

It is a walk I recommend, not necessarily to undertake in a single journey, but in parts as place, time and weather become convenient
A. Wainwright MBE

In 2004 the Coast to Coast walk was named as the second best walk in the world according to a survey of experts. The Coast-to-Coast walk second in a search to find the 50 best walks in the world. The route was behind only Milford Track, New Zealand, according to Country Walking magazine.