If this is the first of my UK Coast to Coast Adventure Journal posts you are reading, please do consider going back to the beginning for the full story.
After a short-day walking through Swaledale, day nine of our UK coast to coast hiking adventure would take us 13-ish miles from Reeth to Colburn. Plus a bit extra wandering around Richmond.
Still loosely following the River Swale, the predominantly rural day would have us walk through a couple of lovely sections of woodland, across a few fields (in some beautifully eerie low cloud), past the ruins of an old priory and up some very old steps, and through some small and quaint villages. Oh, and the very large town of Richmond, of course.
It’s perhaps more common for coast to coasters to stop overnight in Richmond in order to make use of its extensive facilities. But while we did spend some time in the town, we hiked a short distance beyond it and slept in the garden of a closed pub. More on that once I’ve taken you on the hiking portion of day nine…
UK COAST TO COAST HIKE ADVENTURE JOURNAL
Day 9 | Monday 18 October | Reeth to Colburn
I would like to say I felt refreshed and ready to go when I woke up in my little Vango Banshee at Orchard Caravan Park in Reeth, but in all honesty, I felt tired and a bit rough. Which is annoying, as I’d had a good meal, an early night, and a quite excellent sleep. One of those weird things where you sleep well but your body just doesn’t want it to end? Or, maybe, my brain knew it was Monday morning and was worried I would be trying to make it work?!
As I got myself sorted and packed my tent away, Dave made us breakfast – I had potato scones (most underrated breakfast item), beans and fried eggs, with plenty of tea and even a glass of orange juice. It was a luxurious start to the day, and I was grateful to him for bringing enough supplies to share them with me.
He even set about making Jenni and I sandwiches to take with us for lunch while we finished packing our duffel bags. How’s that for service?! (Read about how Dave joined us in my day eight post.)
With full bellies and safe in the knowledge we wouldn’t go hungry all day, we took our packed duffel bags to the campsite reception, and set off on our hike at around 8.30am. Dave joined us for the first 45-minutes or so, as far as Marrick Priory, before he had to turn back and head for home. It was good to see him, and I know Jenni felt the same.
Marrick Priory and the Nuns’ Steps
Marrick Priory was a Benedictine nunnery, established between 1140 and 1160. The parish church and around 400 acres of local land also belonged to the priory, which thrived until the 16th century.
The church, which has been fully restored, along with the ruins of the priory, are now part of an outdoor education and residential centre for young people. While thousands of people visit the ruins each year for outward bounds adventures, it’s no longer possible for casual visitors such as us to see them up close.
To the northeast of the priory, the Nuns’ Steps lead through Steps Wood and on to the village of Marrick itself. A stunning section of dense ancient woodland, my Trailblazer guidebook explained that the nuns of the priory laid the stone steps to help aid their walk to Richmond Abbey. And what a fabulous set of steps it is, not least because the last few days had been incredibly exposed – it was so nice to be in amongst the trees, even if it was for a short time.
New Friends
It was here that Katy and Louis caught up with us. They were the other coast to coast hiking couple who had the displeasure of staying at the King’s Arms in Kirkby Stephen a couple of days before). Choosing to hike this trail in mid-October meant we were terribly short of other hikers to chat to, and these were the first since Dave back on day five.
We walked with Katy and Louis for an hour or so, over farmland to Marrick and then onto Marske. I enjoyed the eerie atmosphere walking across the fields as the cloud came down to meet the ground. While I love the big views, I also thoroughly enjoy atmospheric weather when I’m out and about. It’s just so beautiful and makes everything seem so different.
The farms we walked through were full of sheep and cows, some of which were very curious. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to have a quick and discrete pee behind a wall, only to be disturbed by a previously-unseen herd of super friendly sheep who want to say hello and see what you are doing?! Well now Jenni has… It made us laugh, a lot.
Weary Travellers
In Marske we paid a visit to St Edmund the Martyr Church, where there has been a place of worship since 1090, with some of the original doors and pillars still in place. There’s a little honesty tuck shop inside “for weary travellers”, with sweets, cereal bars, drinks, and even blister plasters.
There is something so right and appropriate about a church providing a space for those who are weary to take refuge and rest. I know it relies on local volunteers to keep it open and stocked up, not to mention a lot of trust that leaving the door unlocked won’t be abused, but I appreciated the gesture and hope others might be influenced by what they are doing in Marske.
I enjoyed the section from there to Richmond, even with the mud. We headed down and then up a reasonably steep and muddy hill, the kind of mud that has you sliding around unable to gain any kind of purchase, before meeting a track that followed the contour of the hill underneath a beautiful rocky crag – Applegarth Scar.
We seemed to walk through all the Applegarths in a very short section of easy-to-navigate path: West Applegarth Farm, Low Applegarth, High Applegarth, and East Applegarth Farm. Then our second small but dense woodland of the day was upon us. Whitecliffe Wood is just half a mile long, the mixed woodland was absolutely stunning in the misty weather, although the path through it was particularly muddy.
Hiding from Rain in Richmond
It wasn’t long before we were in Richmond. Well, first I had an accidental slide down a grassy bank as we walked through West Field just on the outskirts, but you know, I think I got away with only Jenni seeing me do that. And thankfully the place we were staying that night had a washing machine I could use to get some of the mud out of my hiking trousers!
We claimed a bench in the Market Place in the centre of town to sit and eat the sandwiches Dave had made us, as the mist turned to drizzle and then to rain. After enjoying our main course outside, we retreated into the warm and welcoming Penleys Café for tea and cake, and then more tea, to wait out the rain for a bit.
We took quite a long lunchbreak, drying off and warming up, before venturing back outside to explore Richmond a bit. We went to look at the famous Richmond Castle, which – and I like this description – was originally built “to subdue the unruly North of England”. Unlike Shap Abbey earlier in the coast to coast hike, the castle is paid-for entry, and so we had a quick look through the gates before heading out on the castle wall walk instead.
I’m glad we did, the views down over the River Swale and of the castle itself were fantastic. I’m sure the views from the castle keep would have been superior, but the walk was easily worth the extra mile or so. We had plenty of time to do the last three miles of the day, and so adding some town exploring to our day was an excellent use of the afternoon.
On to Colburn
We did eventually leave the relative urban sprawl of Richmond, walking down some very steep wooden steps down to the River Swale, and over the impressive Richmond Bridge with its great view back up at the castle. From there we hiked along a pretty woodland path by the river, around the sewage works (always a pleasure…), through a bit more woodland, and then across our first crop field of the whole coast to coast route. We knew there would be plenty more of those over the next couple of days!
I remember stopping to chat to an older gentleman who was carrying a daypack absolutely covered in patches depicting walks he’d done. We spotted the Lyke Wake Walk patch, which is what got us chatting, a walk Jenni and I did with friend Allysse back in 2015, and would repeat parts of a bit later in the week. I noted in my journal that evening that I should start collecting patches to add to my day pack. Clearly, I’ve not done that – one of those things that only works if you do it from the beginning, I’ve not even caught up on getting stickers of the places I’ve ridden for my motorcycle top box, I’m unlikely to get anywhere if I start collecting sew-on-patches now.
We were on the outskirts of Colburn within an hour of leaving Richmond, and our route took us right past the front of the Hildyard Arms, which was to be our home for the night.
Camping at a Closed Pub
The Hildyard Arms doesn’t open on a Monday, but we’d called a few weeks ahead when planning the hike, and were given permission to camp in the beer garden anyway. The normal deal is that you can camp for free if you use the pub (which is a perfect set up if you ask me), but as there was no way of buying a meal or drinks, we had our night for free.
(Note that the terms of staying here have now changed slightly. The Hildyard Arms now ask for a £10 deposit to book a pitch, which is refunded on arrival in the form of a voucher for use in the pub. Seems incredibly reasonable to me.)
It felt a bit strange camping in a beer garden, for the second time on this hike (the first was way back on day one). Not uncomfortable or anything, just a bit unlikely, not particularly normal. Given that the pub was closed, there were no patrons trying to enjoy their beers as random hikers pitched up around them. A lovely lady came to welcome us and showed us the facilities – drinking water, toilet with basin accessible from the outside, a hot shower (50p a go), and a washing machine/dryer we could use without charge.
A Quiet Night
There was one other hiker staying at the pub who was already set up when we arrived. He’d pitched his tent under a large gazebo set up in the centre of the beer garden, which seemed like a bit of a selfish move to me, as it meant that we didn’t really have access to the shelter that evening. Thankfully it didn’t rain until after we’d gotten into our tents, but I admit I did think it was a bit rude.
We each picked a bit of flat grass close to the pub (not too far to walk to the loo!), got ourselves settled, made use of the shower, and did a bit of laundry. Pitching up in a pub garden might be unusual, but it really was a nice place, and it was right on the coast to coast hiking route without needing to make any kind of detour to find it.
We’d been given a menu for a takeaway that delivered to the pub, which we did ponder making use of, but in the end had another one of the Firepot meals we’d brought with us. Those meals really are quite good, I don’t find having them a hardship at all, this time it was barbecue pulled pork.
And that was it, another day of our coast to coast adventure was done. All that was left was a hot drink, jotting a few notes in my journal, and a comfortable and quiet night in my tent.
Reflections on Coast to Coast Day 9
Day nine of our coast to coast hike was different to anything we’d hiked so far. Leaving the Pennines behind us, we enjoyed a rural day in the main. We saw dense ancient woodland, over-friendly sheep, steps made by nuns, rocky crags covered in mud, cute small villages, and our first crop field of the 200-mile route.
And the bit that wasn’t rural – walking through Richmond – was also a delight. It might have been busy, and quite wet, but the hour-long departure we had from hiking life thanks to a leisurely break in a welcoming coffee shop, was a treat.
While I started the day feeling tired and a bit rough, I soon got into my stride and was able to enjoy the hiking. It helped that the terrain was easy underfoot, the navigation simple, and the miles short. It also helped that there was a lot of interest along the way, hardly a mile went by without something different to look at.
Take More Photos
One thing about day nine that disappoints me looking back now, is how bad I was at taking photos of the people I met and interacted with. This introvert is unlikely to say “oh can I grab a photo” when I chat to people like Katy and Louis, or the gentleman with all the patches on his bag, but it’s one thing I always wish I’d done afterwards. We did at least get photos of Dave hiking with us back on day five, but I should try and be a bit more forward the next time I get chatting to someone on an adventure.
