Coast to Coast

The coast to coast walk is, while slightly curiously not officially acknowledged, comfortably the most popular long distance trail within the united kingdom. It was originally proposed by Alfred Wainwright as a more scenic alternative to the Pennine way.

The basic idea is to start from the western coast of the lake district and cross that, followed by the Yorkshire dales before finishing over the heather moorlands of the north Yorkshire moors to reach the eastern coast.

This is undoubtedly the right place within England to cross the country - in most other places (for instance starting in Wales) the eastern section would be far less interesting. However while Wainwright's original route is still very nice it is only one of many possible routes across the country at this point and some work with maps to investigate alternative routes may well be rewarded with equally nice but far less busy routes.

One example might be to use little Borrowdale within the shap fells in combination with the Northern howgill fells to cross from the lake district into the Yorkshire Dales.