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.