North of England Way- Finished!

Total walked: 219 miles  in 14 days

Our North of England Way walk is finished and we are now back home, rested and recovered ... and wishing we were still out there walking the paths.

I enjoyed every moment of our walk across the country, arriving at the cliff path and walking down on to the sands at Scarborough was kind of bittersweet. I was really tired and ready for a rest, but also didn't want it to end. I can understand how people can just decide to carry on.

The Grand Hotel (which was probably once incredibly grand indeed) is huge and they have loads of entertainments on. We wanted to finish off our walk in style with dancing girls, so after dinner we decided to catch the cabaret show. Three songs later, after a glass of wine (me, beer for Rob) we called it a day and went to bed, only to be woken up by the fire alarm going off an hour or so later. Thankfully it was a false alarm - we found out after having half got up and starting to worry about finding my shoes.

There were a few spots of rain the following day as we had our final cream tea at the Scarborough's Clock Cafe before heading to the train station. We were unbelievably lucky with the weather - it changed completely almost as soon as we finished and it seems to have rained pretty much every day since.

The photos from my 'big' camera have been edited and uploaded. They can be viewed here.
I should like to point out that all the photos on the blog uploaded during the walk were taken with my mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 mini pro, and indeed all the typing was done on the phone's tiny little keyboard, using my thumbs.

The North of England Way runs almost parallel with Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk, just slightly further south, from Ravenglass in Cumbria to Scarborough in North Yorkshire. We walked 219 miles in 14 days through the National Parks of the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire Moors.

So, why The North of England Way and not Wainwright's CtoC? Mostly because it is the path less travelled. We wanted to do a coast to coast walk and it is the ideal length to fit into a 2 week holiday, but we are not the most organised people in the world and by the time we started looking into routes, many sherpa services were already stating that they were fully booked for the weeks that we wanted to go. We didn't ever plan on using a sherpa service, but it was worrying that places to stay would be booked up. We wanted our walk to be totally on foot and didn't want to have start getting taxis or buses to off-route accommodation.

All our stops were pre-booked and everything went like a dream, no bookings going astray or any confusion. Everywhere we stayed, people were friendly and welcoming to visitors with sheepy walking boots and big rucksacks - although I did notice a few of 'polite notices' in some places, we didn't have any issues. Here is where we stayed and the distances, which include our detours.

Day 1 - 6 miles - Ravenglass to Eskdale Green, Bower House Inn
Day 2 - 15.5m - to Coniston, Youth Hostel
Day 3 - 13m - to Windermere, Youth Hostel (Troutbeck)
Day 4 - 13m - to Burneside, The Jolly Anglers
Day 5 - 16m - to Sedbergh, The Bull Hotel
Day 6 - 16m - to Ribblehead, The Station Inn
Day 7 - 14.5m - to Hawes, Youth Hostel
Day 8 - 18m - to Redmire, The Bolton Arms
Day 9 - 17m - to Snape, The Castle Arms
Day 10 - 17m - to Thirsk, The Golden Fleece
Day 11 - 21m - to Helmsley, Youth Hostel
Day 12 - 14.5m -to Hutton le Hole, The Barn Hotel
Day 13 - 12.5m - to Levisham, The Horseshoe Inn
Day 14 - 23.5m - to Scarborough, Grand Hotel


Would I do it again? Yes. Tomorrow. Please. Although there is less ascent and fewer peaks than Wainwright's route, it passes through some of the most beautiful countryside anywhere.


We based our walk on the route described in David Maughan's book On Foot from Coast to Coast: The North of England Way. It is now out of print, but copies are out there.

The GPS track we recorded can be seen here on Google Maps.

For more information:
Long Distance Walkers Association
On Foot From Coast to Coast: The North of England Way book on Amazon.

Day Fourteen: Levisham to Scarborough

Distance: 23.5 miles to hotel
Weather: bit overcast, few spots of rain during the afternoon, heavy rain late evening.
Detours: 3 (one of them intentional)
Squirrels: judging from what we've seen, there are more living in Scarborough than the whole of the rest of Yorkshire.

The end in sight, although it seemed like a very long way away indeed as we got up at 6:30am this morning. After a quick breakfast we were off just after seven. It was cold and more cloudy than of late, and it stayed overcast most of the day. We walked down the green out of Levisham village and turned off down a path that led down the valley above Levisham Beck. The dawn chorus was in full swing, including a cuckoo, and we saw a rabbit and a couple of deer bounding off down the hillside. The path was lined with bluebells, primroses, cowslips, daisies and common spotted orchids.

We went through the Hole of Horcum (not the Hole of Horcrux as I've been saying all day) and out the other side, getting a quick glimpse of Fylingdales radar station, sadly bereft of giant golf balls these days.

The track goes through some RAF land, where the signs warn of hidden surveilance cameras in operation. No stopping beind any bushes here. Part way along Old Wife's Way, we took a detour off the main route to visit the Bridestones Nature Reserve where there are some interesting rock formations - very similar to some of the cliffs we saw later at the seaside, but here free standing in the middle of an upland heath. I tried to get a comedy photo of Rob holding one of the rocks up, but he wouldn't stand under it because it wasn't right and gravity could have kicked in at any moment. There were a lot of bees here, and we saw stonechats. After a sit down and a Mars Bar, we headed back to rejoin the path.

The track went long and straight along the edge of Dalby Forest towards Jerry Noddle, where the path we wanted wasn't there due to the trees being cut down. So we had to walk back a bit and come down a different way. About here we passed a signpost saying Scarborough 10 miles. We took our third detour of the day, following some enthusiastic signs painted up by the farmer saying that the footpath went diagonally over the field to the gate at the bottom. A path did go that way; it wasn't the one that we really wanted, however we didn't realise this at the time. So we went down the hill, over some stiles and a footbridge, up a field, around some gorse bushes, up some more field, down a field, through a marsh, over a footbridge and up a field back to the road. There was a pub round the corner. It was closed. We walked on.

Shortly after, there was more steep up as we went over Broxa Rigg, a wooded little hill where we met some friendly cows and some midges. The track comes down into Hackness, which has a fancy church, big house, unusual bridge and a little stream running down the side of the road. We walked by the side of the (quiet) road for a bit then turned off down a not much used path to cross some fields, where we stopped for second lunch and noticed the sky had turned a funny pinky colour. There were a few spots of rain, but nothing serious. After going round some fields we came to Scalby, with its big posh houses, on the outskirts of Scarborough and followed the road to the coast. It was a bit of a hazy day and there was some umming and maybeing about whether we could see the sea. Rob got the 5p. Heading to the cliffs we met the Cleveland Way again and followed the cliff top path south into the North Bay. According to the North of England Way book, here is the 200 mile point, although until we get home and sort out the gps we won't know for sure. The tide was right in, which saved us a bit of a walk to dip our toes in the North Sea and the end of our coast to coast walk.

Then we had to walk along the beach, up to town and to the Grand Hotel. After a pot of tea and a sit down, we went for a fish supper by the harbour in the South Bay. Including this made a total stepcount for today of 50,477 on Rob's pedometer, about 25 miles.

Day Thirteen: Hutton-le-Hole to Levisham

Distance: 12.5 miles
Weather: warm and sunny
Falls: 1 (me)
Unidentified noises: 1
Sunburnt ears: 1 (mine)
Strange rashes on hand: 1 (me)

Despite the above, day's walk was grand. It was cold as we left Hutton-le-Hole and the path up from the village seemed very steep indeed. It soon levelled out and went along what is described as an old holloway, which turns out is a narrow path under a hawthorn tree tunnel, lined with primroses, harebells and red campion.

The holloway ended at the corner of some large fields and we walked alongside a wall, watching three hares lolloping about. The next village was Spaunton which seemed to be populated entirely by sheep, and then we walked through Lastingham (very, very pretty and apparently has a unique 11th century crypt in the church that we might have gone to look at if it hadn't been up a very steep path in the wrong direction) and up onto the moors.

On the gate there were signs warning about extreme risk of fires, and indeed there were a lot of burnt patches of heather. Some of it had grass growing back up and a few leaves so the fire must have been a couple of weeks ago, but some looked and smelled very recent indeed. Coming down a dusty, rocky path, I slipped and fell, but wasn't hurt and no one saw. We crossed over Tranmire Beck, passed some grimy, sooty looking sheep, and up the other side. Here we heard a very strange huffing noise behind us. I even went back to see what was there, but there was nothing, and annoyingly, the noise remains unidentified.

We skirted a bog and then contoured around the moor, accompanied by stonechats, ignoring the public footpath signs tempting us to cut the corner off, because the guidebook says there is no bridge that way. Once we'd followed our path down and back along the river we took a short detour before crossing the bridge to see if there was a footbridge these days. There isn't, just some stepping stones that were just above the surface of the water today, but after any rain at all would be submerged. As we returned along the rocky path by the river, we saw some cows coming down the field towards us quite purposefully. We thought they were coming to see us, but were quite surprised when they revealed themselves as AquaCows by wading straight into the stream for a drink and a paddle.

We crossed the bridge and headed up a forest track and through some woodland to emerge near to the Blacksmith Arms Hotel, where we stopped for a pot of tea.

Leaving the hotel there was a brief bit of road walking down a windy lane, and the we turned off up another forest track into Cropton Forest, lined with enormous seething ant hills. As the main track zigzagged its way uphill, we took some steeper rocky paths up through the trees. Towards the higher ground, it leveled out and we had a gravelled track passed High Muffles,  a farm in the middle of the forest (near to Muffles Slack, Muffles Rigg, Muffles Bridge, Low Muffles and Muffles Dyke.)

Stopping to take a photo of some Hebridian sheep and lambs, we had a chat with the farmer who explained that the white sheep were mostly Texels, but the particular sheep I asked about was a mule, a cross between a Blue Faced Leicester and a Texel.

Going through Stope, we turned off through some fields and then had a moment of confusion when the paths on the ground didn't agree with the paths on the map, because they had planted a lot of trees since the map was last updated. Stony Moor is now upland heath with trees and shrubs.

Being careful, we came down a steep down hill track to the Levisham station on the North Yorks Moor railway line (no cafe) and then followed a grassy path up the other side of the valley into Levisham village, stopping to sit and watch the steam trains below.

The Horseshoe Inn at Levisham is very comfortable, and has the best showers and seem to be very agreeable to awkward people who request early breakfasts. They also have very good showers.

Day Twelve: Helmsley to Hutton-le-Hole

Distance: 14.5 miles
Weather: mostly sunny, bit chilly at times, breezy

After a good night's sleep in very comfortable beds (no dreams about crawling along stony paths last night) we were well breakfasted and set off just after half past nine. Today was a 'short' day, so there was no rush to be away.

The hostel is right on the edge of town, and we were out the door and headed up through sheep fields (with rough fells, swaledales and some white generic sheep I don't recognise) with plenty of pheasants running about, and soon into a wood that started off very prettily with bluebells and primroses, and ended up as a rusty farmyard machinery graveyard. Coming out of the woods, we turned up a track, where there was some squeaky rodent-like rustling (definitely not coming from my rucksack) in the verge. The path led along the edge of the woodland, and through the yard of a tumbledown farm that was straight out of Balder's Gate. A buzzard was seen circling overhead. At the fork in the track, we took Low Tun Way down into Riccal Dale, carpetted in bluebells. In a clearing by the stream, there were some people standing in a tiny shed with a massive fire lit, we said hello but didn't ask them what they were doing. Leading up the other side of the valley through woodland, we met and chatted with some walkers out for the day.

Emerging from the trees, we met Beadlam Rigg which is a very long, very straight road that goes by three imaginatively named farms, Low Farm, Middle Farm and High Farm. We joined between Low and Middle and headed up. After the farms, there is a gate leading on to heather moorland and we stopped at the top by a trig point for some lunch with fine views over the valley and we could pick out the route of the path over the next section of walk. We had a fly-by of three jet fighters, which Rob then tried to identify. Sadly, they weren't F111 Attack Aardvarks, more probably F15s or F22 Raptors (maybe, apparently, I don't know - ask me about sheep and flowers...)

Todays walk was mostly woods and fields, which have all merged into a big woody fieldy walk. There was a big house with fancy gardens that was pretty but looked out of place, an amusingly stuck lorry on a tiny narrow track that some fed up chaps were trying to dig out, a bench we didn't have a sit on, this was later regretted and later on I ended up just sitting down in the middle of the path, there was a scruffy farm that had a BnB sign which seriously you don't want to stay at - there probably is some thing nasty in the woodshed there. An alarmingly orange stream. A deer! (I managed to get a photo of its bum.) A squirrel! Some confusing paths! Aching feet! Biscuits!

The walk along the valley towards Hutton-le-Hole goes along the River Dove which is famed for its wild daffodils. We are doing our walk about two weeks too late to see these in flower, but we did get to enjoy the bluebells.

To avoid a bit of road walking, we detoured from the N of E Way guidebook, and headed up and round, rather than taking the moorland road into town, this was a bit more hilly but soft grassy paths through a bunny city.

We are staying at the Barn Teashop and Hotel in Hutton-le-Hole and are now having burgers and chips, with a couple of pints of Black Sheep in The Crown pub next door.

Day Eleven: Thirsk to Helmsley

Distance: 21 miles
Weather: sunny, warm when out of the wind
Critters: bunnies, pheasants, buzzard, harriers (on a string), deer, mouse type thing, heard an owl.

After a very restrained breakfast and a quick trip to Boots for more suncream (we hadn't expected to need more than one bottle of that!) we were off at about 9am. After crossing the bridge over the A19, we turned off down a track through a farm and then across some more fields of oilseed rape, the path not being quite as clear as it was yesterday and again we got covered in yellow. Along field borders and tracks took us to Felixkirk where we joined a quiet road, the first bit of serious uphill in a while, and we were into the North York Moors National Park.

Some more uphill, and with a buzzard circling overhead, we entered a wood with bluebells and wild garlic. Coming out onto moorland, we joined the Cleveland Way (which doesn't sound very picturesque, but actually does a 108 mile circuit of the North York Moors from Helmsley around to Filey and is probably a very nice walk indeed.)

At the top of Sutton Bank we met up with Rob's sister and family for a picnic lunch and we had the pleasure of their company for a couple of miles around the escarpment edge. It was rather windy and there were a couple of moments of hat related anxiety.

Walking on, we followed the Cleveland Way through the the pretty village of Cold Kirby (probably named on a windy day) and then onwards towards Rievaulx. Within an hour of my saying that I hadn't seen any deer on our trip (Rob saw one in the ground of the yha in Windermere because he got up early) two of them came running out of the woods and crossed the track just in front of us.

The abbey ruins at Rievaulx are beautiful, set in a secluded wooded valley, and they have a very nice cafe where we had coffee and the stickiest chocolate biscuit cake, and then were entertained by a civil war reenactment and firearms demonstration.

The last three miles to Helmsley took us along a quiet road, which was signposted as being a mile but we think they lied, and then a longer than normal 'two miles' along wooded tracks and some sheep fields. We have left world of rabbit and are now definitely in world of pheasant.

Coming down to Helmsley we could see the castle in the distance, but from closer to it was hard to get a good look at it. We are staying at the yha, which is very quiet and we got a big room to ourselves, which is a relief as I didn't much fancy having to negotiate top bunk beds and ladders after today's walk.

Day Ten: Snape to Thirsk

Distance: 17 miles
Weather: sunny and warm, I didn't think it was as windy but apparently Rob's hat was flapping a bit.
Fish: some quite big fish and two absolutely 'kin huge fish
Camera panics: 1
Dropped Kindle panics: 1
State of feet: bit achey, dusty

Today was the day we hadn't really been looking forward to, as it involved crossing the Vale of York, which is flat, has the A1 motorway, River Swale and a mainline railway running up the middle of it and virtually no footpaths at all. Even David Maughan, the author of the North of England Way book that we are basing our walk on, apologised for today's route, but there aren't many alternatives and you just have to think of it as a necessary step between the National Parks of the Dales and the North Yorks Moors.

It wasn't all bad. We met up the guide book route near the village of Well, which has a pretty church with a 14th century window and a Norman doorway, and then we were pleasantly surprised at the quarry in Nosterfield, which has been flooded and turned into a nature reserve with geese, shelducks and brimstone butterflies. We nearly passed through a second nature reserve not long after, but really only saw the edge of a field before we had to turn away down the lane to Thornbough. The lane passes by a Bronze Age henge, which was the venue for a beardy weirdy Beltane gathering. Down the road there was some Auto Grass Racing, which was proving harder for some to find.

Here we took a detour away from the roads, following a very neat path straight through the middle of a field of oilseed rape (the pollen count went off the scale and most of it on to our trousers, but it was pretty) and into Kirklington, with its pub and ice cold cokes in the beer garden.

The next couple of miles took us along fairly busy side roads and a couple of very busy A roads, under the A1 (where they'd put in some useful gravel paths over the new drainage system) and into Ainderby Quernhow and along the B6267 and A61 to Skipton-on-Swale. Crossing the bridge we stopped to look into the river and there were a lot of quite big fish there. We were impressed by these (possibly salmon/grayling) until a couple of really, really big ones swam up (possibly trout) that made the others look tiny. Seriously, they were two foot long.

Along the road for a bit further, then we turned off across some fields (where we stopped for a bit of fruit cake and Wensleydale cheese) and then back on the pavements for the last trudge into Thirsk and the Golden Fleece Hotel.

Day Nine: Redmire to Snape

Distance: 17.5 miles
Weather: bright and sunny, breezy
Bunnies: hundreds
Jumping fish: quite a few

After a very comfortable night at the Bolton Arms (as well as a short period of excitement when Rob went big game hunting to eject the biggest spider from under the bed) we were set off by just after nine. We took the road down out of the village and across some sheep fields and into a bluebell wood.

We entered the manicured grounds of Bolton Hall and followed the driveway to the village of Wensley. Dodging the traffic, we crossed the bridge and rejoined the River Ure. Soon after we passed a group of D of E'ers on the riverbank, lads cooking sausages on a Trangia. We declined the offer of hotdogs, having eaten, as we have most of the last week, way too much breakfast.

The riverside today seemed so much prettier than yesterday and the flies slightly less annoying. After about a mile, we left the river and crossed some fields to Middleham, where there is a castle and a teashop. This was closed disappointingly. No tea for us. Or cake. We had a bit of a view of the castle as we left up the hill, following the signs to the stepping stones. We didn't need to use the stones, as the path was on our side of the River Cover. We soon came to the Cover Bridge Inn, which was open and did have tea.

We stopped for lunch further on downstream, at a pebbly beachy spot on a bend of the river, sheltered from the wind, and watched the little fish jumping and some ducklings in the distance.

The way took us through the grounds of Jervaulx Abbey (with open tearoom) and then along shady green lanes, tracks and country lanes to Snape and the Castle Arms Inn.

This section of our walk is not quite as described in the North of England Way guidebook, as we decided to not stay in Masham in order to reduce the amount of road walking tomorrow as we cross over the Vale of York. The last section of the day was navigated as we went along, judging the paths as we came to them, mostly they are clear and pretty well used, but you never can tell through farmland.