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.
Day 13 of our coast to coast hike would be our penultimate day on the trail. It was nearly over, which was sad in one way, but also exciting in another. I mean, we were so close to our goal of hiking all the way across the width of the country – and while I much prefer adventures to be happening than to have finished, it was also good to get this one properly ticked off the bucket list.
After a rather excellent day walking from Osmotherley to Blakey Ridge across the North York Moors (read my day 12 adventure journal), we were looking forward to continuing our traverse of this National Park by hiking the 18 miles to Littlebeck.
It was to be a combination of small villages with moorland backdrops, miles that would be full of quaint scenes and Yorkshire charm. The first half would be all about getting down off the open moors to Glaisdale. The second half would be dedicated to those picturesque villages and the varied landscapes in-between.
To Littlebeck
As we’d found earlier in the hike, it was difficult to find accommodation exactly where we wanted to. Rather than pay over the odds for a room in Grosmont, because there seemed to be no camping options available that particular October Friday night, we chose to continue on to Littlebeck, where we would spend our final night pitched up in the garden of a farmhouse.
While this was us playing about with the guidebook’s suggested legs once again (we were using the Trailblazer Coast to Coast Path guidebook), we felt it would provide us with two useful benefits. The first was that the very steep ascent out of Grosmont, which the guidebook notes is a bit of an unpleasant way to start the final day, would be done and dusted on the evening of day 13. And the second was that a few extra miles today when we had all day, would give us less distance to walk on the final day, and therefore more of a chance of reaching the sea at a reasonable time the following afternoon.
UK COAST TO COAST HIKE ADVENTURE JOURNAL
Day 13 | Friday 22 October | Blakey Ridge to Littlebeck
The sunrise over Blakey Moor was quite the sight to wake up to that morning. Jenni called me out of the room to see it through the landing window, and I’m so glad she did, it was a stunner. A most excellent call to action on our penultimate day hiking from coast to coast.
Breakfast was included in our room rate at the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge, so we headed down to our table – the same as we’d been allocated for dinner the night before at 8am.
Of the various hot food on offer I (of course) chose poached eggs on toast, and also made use of the selection of cereals and other bits and bobs available. I’m surprised I managed to eat anything after the amount of food I had just a few hours earlier, but hiker hunger was absolutely real at this point in proceedings.
Running?!
Katy and Louis, who we’d met back on day seven and day nine, were sat at the table behind us, and we chatted about our itinerary for the last two days as we ate. Then there was a guy sat opposite us who was also coast to coasting, but he was running it – he’d started on Saturday lunchtime, so he was on day seven, and was intending to run all the way to the finish today. Amazing. But nuts.
We got ourselves sorted out and were out in the cold (cold, cold) Yorkshire air by 9am, walking up the narrow tarmac road north to Rosedale Head. The bright blue sky opened up the landscape and treated us to stunning autumnal views across the moorland – it really is beautiful in the North York Moors National Park. It didn’t show any sign of wet weather the whole day, but the coats were on to protect us from the wind – it’s very exposed up there.
Our first landmark of the day was to see Fat Betty and leave our offering. Tradition dictates that travellers should leave a sweet snack and take one that has been left.
The Legends of Fat Betty
Also known as White Cross, Fat Betty stands on Danby High Moor at the head of the Rosedale Valley to the east of Rosedale Head. It has stood as a marker stone for hundreds of years. It is easy to become lost on these moors, especially in poor weather, and so cairns, boundary stones, and stone crosses will have been a great help to travellers as far back as medieval times.
She’s a pretty big boundary stone, and a strange shape too – a square body with a round head. Betty is half painted white, has four indentations in the round head that could be seen as a face, and there are some tiny crosses carved on either side of the stone.
As with other boundary markers in our wild places, there are some fantastic legends associated with Fat Betty, which might tell us how such a large and specifically shaped stone ended up here. One says that two nuns from Rosedale Abbey got lost and died in thick fog on the moor, and the cross was set up to commemorate them. Another says it was named after a well-known local nun called Margery or Margaret and originally it was called “Margery Cross”. And a third says that a local farmer’s wife died here; her husband found her dead and set up the cross in her memory – the farmer’s wife was apparently called Betty.
Of course, I have no idea if there’s any truth in these tales, but there tends to be something in the old stories that gives at least a little bit away.
Walking on Tarmac
It was to be a day where road walking, albeit on very quiet and narrow country lanes, would feature heavily. From Fat Betty, we continued along the road, first past the parking area we used as our midway point on the Lyke Wake Walk back in 2015, and then around to the other side of the moor.
A convoy of dusty but expensive-looking pickup trucks and Land Rovers whizzed past us and took a grassy track up towards the trig pillar we could see ahead. A group of grouse shooters, no doubt about that, I’m sure they could find a better hobby.
Just 3.5 miles after leaving the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge, we picked up Cut Road, a well-made stony lane which followed the contour of the hill around Great Fryup Dale. Hooray for no longer being on tarmac! It was also here we caught a fantastic view of the North Sea… one more day and our feet would be paddling in there, it really wasn’t far to go now.
Not far down the track, we walked past Trough House, a gamekeeper’s house used by grouse shooting parties like the one we’d seen a few minutes before.
Glaisdale Rigg
Our path over and around Glaisdale Moor was clear to see in front of us, and provided wonderful views down over Great Fryup Dale (what a great name for a view!). The well-made path, which was mostly flat, allowed us to move quickly.
A man on day walk caught up with us and we chatted for a bit about the moors, hiking and mountain biking, until our routes parted. He was heading down into the valley to the cycle shop and café we could just about make out in the distance, hoping to make it in time to eat a late breakfast and to pick up a bike for the afternoon – a double adventure day for him, I liked that.
After climbing a little, passing a few cairns and a boundary marker, we walked through a gate and back onto tarmac for another mile or so. We were so fortunate with the clear views, it would have been quite miserable in low cloud or rain.
Twenty minutes later we left the tarmac and picked up a green lane, which would take us up and over Glaisdale Rigg and down into Glaisdale itself. We passed a trig pillar (326m), a number of standing stones and stone pillars, plenty more grouse butts, and even more beautiful big views. A couple of dirt bikers rolled past us (this is a marked green lane) – shame they were going in the opposite direction, or I might have suggested a ride to the next gate!
Cheesy Chips in the Arncliffe Arms
We passed a small pond and wandered through farmland down into Glaisdale village. We had heard there was a café, and it looked like the kind of place that should have a tearoom, but that was just wishful thinking. I mean, there’s a post office, the Robinson Institute village theatre, and a Museum of Victorian Science – a lot going on in this little Yorkshire village, just not a cafe.
A little further along our route we saw the owner of the Arncliffe Arms was just opening up (it was about midday), so after establishing that he had a lunch menu, we decided this was a good place to take the load off for a bit.
As we were drinking tea and eating cheesy chips, Katy and Louis came in the door, and we spent quite some time chatting with them and the pub owner. It was sad to hear how much he’d been struggling during the pandemic and still now, and we were glad we at least added a little to his till on that Friday lunchtime.
Beautiful Stone Slabs
Next up was what I think was my favourite short stretch of footpath of the entire 200 miles from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay. Our route through East Arncliffe Wood followed the Esk Way along the southern bank of the River Esk, on a combination of muddy woodland footpath, old worn stone slabs, and railway sleepers.
It was just gorgeous, and quite different to the exposed lane we were just on over Glaisdale Rigg. What made it special were the beautiful stone slabs with mossy edges, worn down to smooth lumps from so much footfall over the years. And I mean years – these stones are ancient, part of an old monk’s route, a bit like the Nun’s Steps we walked up on day nine.
I can see how it would be very muddy and slippery walking through East Arncliffe Wood in wet weather – the combination of moss on stone would be a bit slimy. Again, we had to realise how fortunate we were with our weather on this long hike – yes, we had some poor weather which prevented us getting up Helvellyn on day four, and again on day 11 when walking to Osmotherley, but it had been quite a dry couple of weeks by British standards.
The woodland didn’t last for long, but our twenty minutes under the canopy topped up all kinds of reserves that the moorland had taken from us. Even now, with a whole year of hindsight, I would say that was my favourite mile of the hike.
The Famous Steam Train
We continued to follow the River Esk into Egton Bridge, which our guidebook suggests is the prettiest village on the whole coast to coast route. We didn’t go into the village itself to explore, we still had plenty of miles to do, and wanted to arrive at Littlebeck with enough time to relax properly before our last day of our coast to coast adventure the following day. A place to come back to another time.
Instead, we continued over the river, taking the path down Egton Estates driveway, past a farmhouse (which was for sale, we did look…) and the famous toll cottage with its sign still on the wall, and under the railway.
It was an easy but pretty walk into Grosmont, where we used the public toilets at the start of the village before walking up the main street towards the famous Grosmont railway station. Home to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, we couldn’t have timed our arrival any better; the steam train was sat in the station being readied to leave. There was quite a buzz of activity in the 1950s themed station, it was fun to watch as people boarded the train, and as the train pulled away. Ten minutes well spent.
Up Hill
While Grosmont would have been a lovely place to stay overnight, it did seem quite charming even if it was super busy with people, we weren’t able to find accommodation here. This meant we had to tackle the apparently “savage” hill out of the village and back up onto the moor before we could pitch up for the night.
The guidebook wasn’t wrong. The walk up Fairhead Lane to Sleights Moor was so very steep. I noted in my journal that evening that it felt like it went on forever, even though we were on the moor in less than two miles. We ascended over 230m (700 feet), at times on a 33% gradient hill, all on tarmac. I think it’s okay to say that it was slow going, it was tough, and we both wanted it to end.
Thankfully, there were views to break up the monotony of the climb on the road. We had views back over the Esk Valley, of Whitby Abbey, a field of belties with autumn calves, a deer farm, and both the Low Bridestones (off the path slightly) and High Bridestones (on the coast to coast route without detour). These standing stones are thought to have once formed two separate four-poster stone circles – originating from the Bronze Age, and standing on an ancient limestone pavement which is now buried underneath the heather.
Intake Farm, Littlebeck
We did eventually reach the A169, which would be where our route to our overnight stop would deviate from the official coast to coast route, but only slightly. As instructed by our host at Intake Farm, we picked up a farm track a little ahead of the coast to coast footpath sign, and walked down to High Quebec farm. We chatted with a farmer about the old train carriage in his yard, the benefits of his rather fancy looking Polaris side by side, and the trials of farming in this area of Yorkshire, before continuing down into the valley through Low Quebec Farm and onto Intake Farm.
Our welcome at Intake Farm near Littlebeck was nothing short of wonderful. I mean, our host – Judith – opened the door to greet us with “would you like tea and cake?”. We were going to like it here!
Once we’d had our cake, we were shown to a lovely flat area of garden to pitch our tents, given access to the farmhouse shower to get cleaned up, and shown to the guest lounge where we were encouraged to stay inside by the fire until it was time for bed. It was due to be a very cold night, and that hot shower and warming fire were everything.
Home Cooked Warmth
That evening, Judith presented us with the most wonderful home cooked dinner of beef stew with mashed potato and vegetables, followed by lemon meringue pie. I couldn’t help myself and ended up having two helpings of the pie, it was just so good.
Being our last night on the trail, Jenni and I chatted all things finishing the coast to coast over dinner. We agreed to save some of our reminiscing until the following evening, doing our best to live in the moment. We had our daily study of the guidebook notes and map for the following day, all the while enjoying that open fire.
Eventually it was time to get into my tent and sleep off the tiredness of the day. Remembering how the cold felt in Osmotherley, and very grateful we chose to stay inside the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge rather than camp in the garden, I went to bed with all my layers on – and hoped very much that I didn’t need to get out for any reason until morning.
Reflections on Coast to Coast Day 13
I really enjoyed day 13 of our coast to coast hike. The 18-miles from Blakey Ridge to Littlebeck were pretty straight forward, but provided heaps of interest, from big moorland views to quaint and pretty Yorkshire villages – and I’ll never forget that wonderful mile-stretch of mossy woodland between Glaisdale and Egton Bridge.
It wasn’t at all easy, though. Not as tough as walking in the Lake District the previous week (read day two), but this stretch of the coast to coast path had a different kind of difficulty. It was hard on the feet thanks to all the tarmac and stone paths, and then there was that climb out of Grosmont, which was basically pure evil. I’m so glad we didn’t wait to do that the following morning!
Good Weather, Good Food
We were once again very fortunate with the weather, the skies staying blue and the views clear for most of the day. This would have been one of the most miserable sections if it had been wet; the combination of exposed tracks over open moorland and easily waterlogged riverside paths would have been demoralising. Never underestimate the power of a dry hiking day!
We also did pretty well with food, hardly dipping into the random selection of snacks we had left in our packs. Starting the day with a hearty breakfast at the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge, grabbing Yorkshire tea and cheesy chips at the Arncliffe Arms in Glaisdale at lunchtime, and finally sitting down to home cooked stew in the evening. We really didn’t want for anything.
With just one day left to go, it’s not a problem to admit that I arrived at Intake Farm very tired. We’d walked something-like 190 miles in 13 days, which was not to be sniffed at. I got into bed wishing for one last night of good sleep and magic recovery in order that I could make the most of the last few miles into Robin Hood’s Bay the following day.
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