Coast to Coast Path – Steve Matthews' book review

A 189½ - the ½ is important, you don’t want to stop short of the beach – mile walk from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay sounds the perfect walk for a long summer holiday. Alfred Wainwright did it in 1972 and produced a beautifully detailed guide to the route and all its features. Wainwright told you what to see on the way and how to appreciate the landscape and he shared the pleasure he felt in being out on the hills, in the freedom and the solitariness of the open air.

Other, more practical guides have followed, guides that belie that sense of the free spirit, the solitary wanderer, with detailed itineraries and precise advice on where to stay and how to prepare and the kit to take and numerous other necessary but fussy things.

Henry Stedman and Stuart Butler have now produced a revised version of a guide that first appeared in 2004. It’s a compact, closely printed book, ideal to keep in the cagoule pocket as you march along and constantly check whether you’ve missed your turning. And it is packed with information and advice. Everything from the best B&Bs to the need to take your rubbish home.

But they know the walk. They know that St Bees is “Sleepy for the most part – except for the rowdy Friday nights when the workers from Sellafield come to let off steam”. They observe that, “As with Moor Row, it’s clear that Wordsworth’s lyrical ballads never reached out to immortalise the grim, pebbledashed terraces of Cleator.” In Grasmere “masses of coach tour groups pause to take selfies before puttering off”. A day off in Kirkby Stephen is “a tonic to numerous woes”. “The size and scale of Richmond – to say nothing of the noise, the bustle and the traffic – can come as something of a shock,” we’re told, “to fell-weathered coasters used to more rural locales.” And in Robin Hood’s Bay there are “gift, souvenir and antique shops aplenty as well as certificates for newly ennobled Coast to Coasters”.

When it comes to the walk itself, our guides are meticulous and cautious. They counsel against being too adventurous in bad weather – and they advise on the terrain. They warn, for instance, that, “There are no technically difficult parts, though there are some steep ascents and descents which will hammer the knees and route-finding on the way up to Red Pike can be tricky.”

There are meticulous sketch maps with special attention paid to not losing the way. On Map 12 they note, “This is extremely boggy in places and there is no path. Instead, keep to the fence, moving away to avoid the boggy sections.”

This carefully thought out guide will prove essential for the would be Coast-to-Coaster.

Unfortunately, the book lacks Wainwright’s love and passion for the fells. Pack the Wainwright for inspiration and Stedman and Butler so you don’t get lost.

And one day, if we’re lucky, you’ll be able to walk that last half mile and deposit your St Bees pebble in the North Sea.

• Coast to Coast Walk from Bookends, www.bookscumbria.com