On the Coast to Coast from Cumbria to North Yorkshire: Wainwright route gains national trail status

New designation for one of England’s most famous walks – a lifeline for many small northern towns – brings £5.6m funding

The news that the much-loved Coast to Coast path is finally to become an official national trail – which brings extra funding of £5.6m from Natural England – should not be surprising. For some time it has been one of England’s most popular and iconic walks. The only surprising thing is how long the designation has taken.

It was in 1973 that Alfred Wainwright extended his range from the Lake District by describing this 192-mile walk, which starts on the west coast at St Bees in Cumbria and ends in the east at Robin Hood’s Bay on the Yorkshire coast. There’s a handy book that you sign to show you’ve done it in the Bay Hotel and possibly a certificate. You can, of course, do it the other way around, but as Wainwright wisely pointed out, by going west to east you have the prevailing weather behind you.