The Coast to Coast Walk 2011 - Richmond to Robin Hood's Bay

After leaving Richmond, we crossed the flat Vale of Mowbray in beautiful sunshine to Ingleby Cross. This signalled the end of the good weather though as we walked the final three days in rain that was at times very heavy, particularly on the Cleveland Hills. We reached Robin Hood's Bay after thirteen days of walking.

Coast to Coast - Friday 15th July - Day 10 - Richmond to Ingleby Cross 23 Miles

Richmond Castle from the River Swale

Today was the day that most Coast to Coasters dread, the long, largely scenery and contour free crossing of the Vale of Mowbray between the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. Strangely, when I did the walk in 1998, I had really enjoyed this day as I had probably the best weather of the whole trip and had treated the day as a challenge walk, trying to complete it in as short a time as possible. This time however, we had the extra impediment of a large rucksack to carry so it would almost certainly take longer than I had thirteen years earlier. After an excellent breakfast at the guesthouse we set off for the centre of Richmond and stopped for supplies in the market square and with the clock on the church tower chiming 8am, headed out of town over the River Swale with good views of the castle ruins to our left.

Leaving Richmond

The weather was fine although a little cloudy and we stopped occasionally to take photos of the castle as we headed out into woods just beyond the town. After one or two up and downs through the woods on muddy paths, the terrain settled down into largely featureless fields interspersed with the occasional village all of it unmemorable but not unpleasant and we made good progress before arriving in Bolton on Swale. The village is most notable as the resting place of Henry Jenkins who is reputed to have lived to the frankly unbelievable age of 169. There is a monument to mark his fantastically long life in the churchyard but as I had seen it on my previous visit, and partly because I find it hard to take seriously, we didn't linger and soon passed through the village.

The River Swale 

Although a lot of the road walking to the village of Danby Wiske has since been omitted by diverting the route across fields, we stuck to the road to enable us to clock up the miles as quickly as possible but by the time we reached the quaintly named village, we were ready for a drink in the White Swan. After being served by the most miserable barman it has ever been our misfortune to encounter, we sat out in the pleasant sunshine to enjoy our drink before setting off once again, partly because we didn't want to give anymore business to the grouch at the bar but mostly because there were still quite a number of miles to walk before reaching Ingleby Cross. One of the welcome features of this stretch of the walk was the refreshments left out for Coast to Coaster's at various farms we passed through.

A Welcome Sight

Often, there were cool boxes containing cold drinks, chocolate bars and flapjacks, so you could help yourself to what you wanted and make payment in an honesty box. Towards the end of the long walk, one of these was a very welcome sight as it also had a picnic table and chairs where we could rest our weary legs. After many more miles of largely forgettable countryside we reached the outskirts of Ingelby Arnecliffe from where we had to cross the extremely busy A19 road as we headed to Ingleby Cross, which we reached after nine hours of walking feeling fairly footsore. Arriving at the Blue Bell pub, we found that it was closed but there were other Coast to Coaster's camped in the camping field at the rear of the pub so we pitched our tents and showered and washed clothes before eventually heading into the bar for a meal and a few beers with a number of others doing the walk. In all there were seven Coast to Coaster's staying at the campsite for the night and we had a good night in the crowded bar before retiring to our tents. As I fell asleep I heard rain falling on the tent, which signalled the end of our good fortune with the weather.   

Coast to Coast - Thursday 14th July - Day 9 - Reeth to Richmond 10.5 miles

Marrick Priory

After a cold night, we awoke to an equally cold morning in the caravan, which was confirmed by the fact that we could see our breath as we prepared breakfast. Packing up was a much quicker affair without having to worry about the tents and we were soon on our way to the village where we stopped at a shop to stock up on food and drink for the walk. Peter, the campsite manager had told us the previous evening that he had been discussing the recent Coast to Coast documentary starring presenter Julia Bradbury with the shop owner and the resulting positive effect on the local economy. Certainly, apart from the first day or so, obtaining supplies had been very easy with many shops stocking prepared sandwiches and snacks. The whole walk had certainly become more of an 'industry' than it had been thirteen years earlier on my last trip. Today's objective was Richmond, the largest town on the whole walk and we were booked into a guesthouse for the night. With this being one of the shortest, easiest sections of the route, we could relax and take it easy, which we did, strolling along through the now tamed, scenically gentle Swaledale on a beautiful sunny day. The difference between this countryside and the walk as it had entered the bleak, wild upland parts of the valley two days earlier was quite marked. We reached Marrick Priory in it's idyllic valley setting, enhanced by pine forests in the background before climbing Nunnery Steps through the woods to the tiny hamlet of Marrick.

View of Swaledale

This section between the hamlet and the village of Marske proved to be a wonderful walk through typically bucolic English scenery and the views from the hilltops were delightful in the warm sunshine. We stopped briefly in Marrick and had a quick conversation with a group of Coast to Coasters going east to west who seemed to be under the impression that the harder days were behind them. We didn't like to disillusion them. Heading out of the village, we approached a walker sitting on a bench resting with his boots off and stopped for a chat. We had seen Alan, (which, as we later found out, was his name) on a number of occasions and had said 'hello' a few times but we hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him before. I would guess that Alan was in his seventies and looked quite frail and walked slowly, often with his arms folded. We would overtake him fairly early on most days as he slowly strolled along and it was quite baffling that he always seemed to be in front of us as we set off each day. We later learned that, though he walked slowly, he walked for many hours at a time, so although we passed him early on in the day, he would always halt overnight a few miles further on from us.

Swaledale from Applegarth Scar

After chatting for a while, we left him sitting in the sunshine and headed for the limestone cliffs of Applegarth Scar, which we climbed without too much trouble before stopping on the path just below the clifftops to rest and enjoy the views down Swaledale. Continuing, we reached Whitcliffe Wood and enjoyed the change in scenery through the woodland before emerging on a road as the first views of Richmond with it's enormous castle keep towering over the town came into view. This section of the walk proved to be a very easy stroll along tarmac and we passed a number of people out for a walk enjoying the summer sunshine as we descended into the attractive cobbled town square.

Richmond Castle towers over the town

Being among the hustle and bustle of a town the size of Richmond after more than a week of staying in  villages seemed a little odd at first but as we were too early to check into the guesthouse, we found a pub on the square with tables outside and bought a welcome pint and, being back in the land of the mobile signal after two days without, made calls home before checking in and sorting out our gear for the following day. The guesthouse was one I had stayed in thirteen years earlier on my previous trip, and I introduced myself to the owner who was still running the establishment. On my first visit, she had just taken over the business and it had suffered from a slightly neglected atmosphere. Now, however, things couldn't have been more different as she whisked our laundry away and took orders for packed lunches for the following day. Later that evening, we returned to the town centre for a very generous meal in the pub we had drunk in earlier, which would hopefully set us up for the longest section of the route tomorrow, the twenty three mile crossing of the Vale of Mowbray to the North York Moors, the last National Park of the walk.