Robin Hood’s Bay to Glaisdale

Tuesday 31st August 2010

Last Easter I walked along the Coast to Coast Path from the Lake District through the Yorkshire Dales and to the castle town of Richmond. Now I had the opportunity to walk along the final section of the Coast to Coast Path from the east coast to the western edge of the North York Moors. To start the walk I climbed out of Boggle Hole and crossed the low cliff top to the village of Robin Hood’s Bay, where there is a tightly packed collection of delightfully small cottages and narrow streets. After dipping my toes in the sea (actually just wetting my boots) at the actual end of the Coast to Coast Path I set off up the steep, narrow streets on Wainwright’s epic walk. Once on the cliff top path I resumed my walk along the Cleveland Way (which coincides with the coast to coast for a couple of miles) high above the sea cliffs around Ness Point. This first section (usually the last) of the coast to coast features some fabulous cliff top walking with some steep descents and ascents, in and out of inlets, accompanied by stunning views of the cliffs and the sea under clear, sunny skies. Eventually, at Maw Wyke Hole, I said goodbye to the sea and climbed up the hillside through a caravan park and into the village of Hawsker. Continued road walked took me over the busy A171 road and onto a track that climbs up to my first moor of the holiday. This was a fabulous walk through purple flowering heather as I crossed Low Moor to the B1416 road. A short walk along the road took me to another moorland, crossing over Sneaton Low Moor. 

A minor road at the far end of the moor took me down into the delightful valley of May Beck where I had a wonderful walk along a great woodland path at the bottom of an exquisite, narrow valley. Passing Falling Foss waterfall I stopped at a hollowed-out rock known as the Hermitage where I had my lunch. This is marked on my map as being a viewpoint but the trees have overgrown and now block most of the view across the valley, which is a pity as I didn’t have much else to look at as I ate. The continued walk along the bottom of the delightful valley of Little Dale took me to the picturesque village of Little Beck where another road took me steeply out of the valley and onto another gorgeous moorland. The ascent continued across a main road, the A169, as I climbed up to the top of the moor, Flat Howe, but at a lowly 289m. At this point I disagreed with the map and tried to forge me own route across the moor, but with hindsight I think I should have gone even further away from the prescribed route. 

The route at this point has seen some variations over the years. Wainwright’s original guide recommended crossing the moor through pathless heather to the tumulus atop Flat Howe before continuing to the main road (remember I’m doing this walk the wrong way round). The partial revision of 1994 has a side note advocating a strict adherence to rights-of-way by staying on the road almost all the way around the moor, and my map follows this route. Chris Jesty’s recently published second edition of Wainwright’s guide reverts to Wainwright’s original route by recommending a traverse of the heather thanks to new Right to Roam legislation. Going in the opposite direction I headed straight onto the moor from the main road but soon found myself wading through deep heather that was both tiring and frustrating so that eventually, without visiting the actual summit of Flat Howe, I gave up and headed straight towards the road which I followed downhill. Two guys who were walking behind me took a different route. They walked along a bridlepath that crosses the northern slopes of Flat Howe before reaching the road at the edge of the moor. This seems to me to be the easiest route so I don’t know why it has never been recommended before, however, given good weather and low heather, Wainwright's route would be the best. 

On reaching the road I walked steeply down to the bottom of the Esk Valley, into the village of Grosmont. The northern terminus of the North York Moors Railway is at Grosmont, which was enough enticement for me to spend an hour or so there looking at the trains in the engine shed and the ones, including a majestic 9F, that were pulling the services. I was strongly tempted to take a ride on the trains but that was not what I was there for. So I resumed the coast to coast with a short walk along the road to a track that follows the River Esk to Egton Bridge where I had to walk along the road again until I reached the southern end of East Arnclife Wood. An undulating track weaves its way through the wood eventually descending to the riverside for a final delightful, weary stroll to Glaisdale station where I caught a train to the harbour town of Whitby. One thing I noticed on this walk was that there is a lot of road walking on the Coast to Coast Path, but there are also lots of other terrain to walk through such as vast moorland and narrow tree-filled valleys. This was a really varied walk and typical of the Coast to Coast Path at its best.