With over 20 miles to hike on day six of our UK coast to coast hike, 21.5 to be exact, it would be our biggest day so far. We would be hiking across the Westmoreland Plateau from Shap to Kirkby Stephen, and expected it to take us all the hours of daylight available.
While it was a big mileage day, it really was not as energy sapping as the previous few days had been. The Lake District might be stunningly beautiful, but it is hard work! I wouldn’t call day six a recovery day, as the Trailblazer guidebook suggested it might be, but it was certainly much easier on the legs and stamina than the fells had been.
Thankfully, the fact that we’d gotten ourselves psychologically ready for hiking over 20 miles helped, and even though I was struggling with undiagnosed anaemia at the time (read about day two), there is an awful lot to be said for mind over matter. I honestly believe that getting the brain in the right gear to do something can make your body achieve amazing things – and as long as you keep yourself injury free, your mind can pretty much run the show. (And if someone could coach me in that at the moment, when my body feels like it’s going from one problem to another, that would be great!)
We started day six of our coast to coast hike waking up in our bunk room at New Ing Lodge, Shap.
UK COAST TO COAST HIKE ADVENTURE JOURNAL
Day 6 | Friday 15 October | Shap to Kirkby Stephen
We were 100% right to switch from camping to a bunk room, as we woke up to a very glistening scene outside. Not quite a frost, but not far off. We were most certainly more comfortable inside than we would have been out on the camping field. I really love camping, and know people who relish sleeping outside in uncomfortable conditions, but why suffer when there’s a better option available?
I had a decent enough sleep, but woke up with my knees feeling very stiff and sore, which in turn fuelled those anxious thoughts from the start of the trip. Twenty miles would be a test on fresh legs, and so I was rather hoping I would wake up feeling ready and raring to go.
I mean, having stiff legs wasn’t at all surprising. It was fine and perfectly normal to have heavy legs after taking all day to hike over Kidsty Pike and around Haweswater Reservoir – the terrain, gradient and distance would have been tough even if we hadn’t already walked for 70 miles over the previous five days.
The problem here, was we weren’t yet halfway through this thing. As I was washing my face and brushing my teeth, I allowed my mind to consider once again if walking all the way to the east coast was beyond my ability.
One Day at a Time
It’s hard to take one day at a time when you are tired and emotional. It’s also hard to relive this here because it makes me sound like a proper negative nellie! Re-reading my daily journal entries to write these blog posts makes me wonder if I’m actually not the optimistic person with a stoic attitude to challenge I thought I was.
It doesn’t help that I’m feeling pretty rubbish at the moment anyway, impatiently recovering from my first bout of COVID. I guess it’s important to remember that adventure writing is always tied up in two sets of memories – those from the adventure itself, as well as those created at-the-time-of-writing. I promise hiking the coast to coast is a happy and satisfying memory in my adventure book, and I hope that comes across as I share each day with you.
Back to the day in question, and thankfully, a chat with Jenni followed by a relaxed breakfast helped. I’d chosen the continental breakfast option the night before, which cost me £5 on top of my room rate. This meant I could munch happily on granola with yogurt, nuts and fruit, and drink copious amounts of tea. Perfect. Jenni and Dave had a cooked breakfast, which did look and smell great, but I know when my body is happier with the lighter (and sweeter…) choice.
With the afore mentioned big miles ahead of us, we said our goodbyes to Dave (read my day five adventure journal), who would be hiking as far as Orton, where he would catch a once-a-day bus and then a train to get him home, and left New Ing Lodge a little after 8am. My phone said it was just two degrees outside, but it was already a beautiful morning with clear skies and big views.
Over the M6
First on the hiking menu was quite the milestone on our hike from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay – crossing the M6. It sounds silly, but crossing the M6, and the A1 later in the hike, are significant. They are well known vertical lines that divide the country into smaller sections. The coast to the M6 is like section A in a suite of music, the M6 to A1 section B, and the A1 to the coast section C. A niche analogy, perhaps, but I’m sure you get my drift.
The previous Friday, Fiona and I had cheered as we drove under the footbridge over the M6 on our way – she took great pride in being able to point it out from when she did the walk herself a couple of years before me. And the times I’ve been under that bridge since I hiked it, I’ve been quickly transported back to that morning.
My knees, especially my left one, were so very sore. It might have been easy terrain, but I was making good use of my poles. I have to say that pair of walking poles definitely saved me during this hike, the most important bit of kit in my day pack (other than my Jetboil!).
The beauty of the countryside, the views back to the very obvious Kidsty Pike, and the sun soon warming things up, all helped to keep my mind on the good side of the hike rather than descending into those anxious thoughts again. It really did feel like a lovely stroll. Yes, we had a very long way to go, but we were off to a good start.
Robin Hood’s Grave
Once over the M6 we entered the recently extended boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, wandering past Hardendale Quarry and on to Oddendale.
This area is littered with shake holes, which are potholes covered in boulder clay, showing themselves as depressions in the landscape, littered with limestone rocks and apparent cracks in the ground. They often indicate cave systems beneath, but we weren’t temped to see if the massive one that was fenced off had any access underground (you can read why in this post about deep caving at Clearwell Caves).
We picked up an old Roman road for a bit, but the coast to coast route here mainly follows farm tracks and moorland footpaths – long stretches of stress-free and well signposted paths over undulating hills, with views for miles around.
We had a brief snack stop at Robin Hood’s Grave, a 50m detour from our marked route in a shallow dell. This spot, marked by a cairn made from a loose pile of stones about a metre high, has been here since at least 1857, and is marked on the Ordnance Survey map.
In researching for these adventure journal posts, I now know that it was once customary for every person who walked here, most likely to go nutting in the nearby woodland, to throw a stone on the mound. There’s even a rhyme – “Robin Hood, Robin Hood, here lie thy bones; Load me with nuts as I load thee with stones”. I wish I’d known at the time, as I would definitely have taken part in the old tradition.
Sunbiggin Honesty Shed
Back out of the National Park, we walked to Orton, having a slight navigation error through farmland resulting in an extra half a mile or so, but enjoying the change of scenery none-the-less. We took a short snack break by the church, wondering if Dave had made it in time to catch his bus – we hoped so.
The route skirted just below Great Asby Scar Nature Reserve on a very easy-to-walk bridleway, where we took a short detour to see a not-particularly-impressive ancient stone circle, before picking up a narrow country lane to and through Sunbiggin Farm.
It would have been rude not to make use of the famous Sunbiggin honesty shed for our boots-off lunchbreak – a fridge-cold can of Irn Bru and tea with proper milk to accompany the food we were carrying in our packs. It was such a lovely place to sit for a while, the sun was now quite warm, and there were tables and chairs provided.
We were fortunate with our timing, as it would be the last week the shed would be open for the season. The farmer we spoke to commented that he’d not seen many walkers for a couple of weeks, which did make us realise we’d not come across many coast to coasters over the last few days at all. We hoped we would bump into a few more before we finished.
A Perfect Day Hike
Having walked just half our intended mileage for the day, we couldn’t sit for too long, even though it would have been very easy to take an hour or two on the sunny terrace. That sounds as though we’d not done much, but 11 miles before lunch is not to be sniffed at – we just had 10.5 more miles to go! I don’t know about you, but I always like to get more than halfway before lunch, it helps make big mile or technical hiking days feel manageable somehow.
From the shed, we walked on Tarn Moor to Sunbiggin Tarn, and onto the Dales High Way across Ravenstonedale Moor. Then we walked around Bents Hill, where we saw a sign for camping at Bents Farm that wasn’t mentioned in the guidebook (marked on the OS Map as having a hostel), before following a boundary wall up and over Begin Hill and to Smardale Bridge.
The walk that afternoon was so lovely, as good as any day hike I’ve been on in recent years. It helped that the weather was beautiful, and the scenery wide and open. It might not have had the high and rugged hill views of the last few days, but it definitely wasn’t just a boring linking section as I know some people refer to the “in between” bits of long-distance hikes.
We had green rolling hills, boulder covered meadows and craggy walls, and working farmland with interesting features. It seemed like there wasn’t a moment on the walk we couldn’t see a cow, horse, sheep, or big bird. It was glorious.
Pillow Mounds
Back just inside the Yorkshire Dales National Park, we were also treated to an incredible array of historical stuff going on all around us. There were cairns, settlements, old stone buildings, random bits of wall going nowhere, shake holes, pillow mounds, a dismantled railway, animal skulls, and lots more. It was the pillow mounds that especially sparked my interest, because they were, well, so uniform and odd looking on the hillside.
Googling it as we sat and had a drink overlooking the pretty Scandal Beck (another opportunity for a cup of tea!), we discovered that pillow mounds were basically ancient rabbit farms. Likely medieval, they are low stone mounds which were once covered with earth and used as artificial rabbit warrens.
Brought to England by the Normans, rabbits were regarded as valuable animals, to be looked after and treasured. Every part of the animal was used – meat, fur, and everything else besides. There must have been thousands and thousands of rabbits living in this area as there were so many pillow mounds on the hillside. I bet there still are bunnies living in this spot, but sadly they kept themselves hidden from us.
The Kings Arms Hotel
The final 4.5 mile section of day six of our coast to coast hike took us up and over Smardale Fell, through some beautiful meadow, under the railway, past some castle earthworks, and into Kirkby Stephen. We arrived just after 6pm, with the sun setting, feeling a little chilly, and very tired indeed.
We’d always planned for Kirkby Stephen to be a bed and breakfast night. A combination of it being the biggest mileage day of the hike, and it being quite a few days in, made us think we’d appreciate the cosiness and convenience of an ensuite room.
The Kings Arms Hotel, on the main street through the village, was not our first choice accommodation. The new owners of the B&B we’d originally booked cancelled on us just a couple of weeks before we were due to stay so they could start renovations, which was a bit of a bummer, but I guess that’s the way things go sometimes.
Our £75-a-night twin room (a cost we shared), was spacious and comfortable, perhaps recently decorated, with a tiny but reasonable bathroom. Unfortunately, the promise of a drying room was broken – we asked but were told the website and information sheet in the room were both incorrect. We also found they were not serving dinner that evening, so we headed up the street to the local Indian restaurant – The Mango Tree – and had a really good meal there instead.
I think I’ll save the rest of my review of our night in this particular B&B for the next post, you’ll want to come back for that…
Reflections on Coast to Coast Day 6
We knew, even months before we started our coast to coast hike, that this would be a big day. 21.5 miles in one stretch, on already tired legs, was going to be mentally and physically tough. We chose to take comfort in the fact that the map and book promised terrain that was hassle-free, and navigation that was straight forward.
Starting the day on a bit of a downer because my knees were still so sore from the previous day, it’s fair to say I struggled to get going and enjoy the first few miles. But once the sun had warmed things up a bit, and I realised that the relaxed but beautiful walking the book talked about was as described, I got into my stride.
I admit that my knees were really very painful by the end of the day, and stiffened up as soon as we stopped. This made walking the mile or so up to the shop for our evening resupply a bit of a challenge, slightly comical even, although it was worth it to top up the pack with treats (it’s always worth it!).
Despite the soreness, it was such a lovely day. I mentioned earlier in this journal post that I really enjoyed the scenery, the terrain, and the varied nature of the route. It didn’t feel anything like the monotonous linking section between two national parks I thought it might. And, given the easy-going nature of the bridleways and farm tracks we were following, we could keep a reasonable pace whilst still enjoying the various features along the way.
Taking the time to have plenty of sit-down stops also helped, that afternoon cup of tea was the best one of the hike so far – no question. I would definitely head back to hike in this area of the Yorkshire Dales again. I’ve not looked to see what day hikes there are, but I imagine there are some crackers.
