The Coast to Coast on the North York Moors: Hail, Wildfire, and Reaching Robin Hood’s Bay

Wild Weather, steep climbs, and that knotty feeling when the sea finally comes into view.

This article covers the final stage of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk, crossing the North York Moors from the Cleveland Hills to Robin Hood’s Bay. It’s a landscape of wide skies, exposed moorland, and a fitting, often emotional end to the walk.

If you’re looking for a guide to planning your own walk, you’ll find that here: Hiking Wainwright’s Coast to Coast: A Real Backpacker’s Guide.

The Mood Of The Moors

The expansiveness of the North York Moors—arching skies, uninterrupted views, birds rising from the heather, skylarks hanging high above—promised the same openness I feel when I look out across a flat sea. And, at times, the moors really deliver.

But, like the coast, with exposure comes the worst of the weather: bitterly cold winds, hailstorms and heavy rain, even in early September. You never forget who’s boss here—and it isn’t us.

More Than You Expect

There were surprises, too—the gruelling climbs, the unforgettable panoramic views out to sea in the Cleveland Hills, the village of Grosmont with its heritage railway and excellent “oldest independent co-op in the UK” — even the 23 miles of ‘no-man’s land’ between the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors National Park were a surprise.

They were alive with flower meadows, and hedgerows full of hawthorne and bramble, ripe with berries.

At dusk, near Danby Wiske, the skies were filled with roosting geese flying in ‘v’ formations, one after another. The drama here isn’t in the landscape, it’s in the life around you.

The Days That Stayed With Me

Solo walking is usually how I experience a trail — settling into my own pace, feeling the elements, noticing the small details within the wider landscape: the patterns on a butterfly’s wing, light shifting across the heather. It’s an easy way into a deep state of flow. But often, this hike was different. I embraced another way of experiencing the trail:  walking with others.

In many ways, the trail facilitates this. There are campsites most of the way; it’s far busier than other trails, and people are friendly: you don’t have to be alone if you don’t want to be. But that doesn’t mean you have to be constantly chatting either.

Who wants to talk when you’re on a relentless trudge on a straight track, battered by freezing winds and hailstorms on the high moor? It’s the coming together again, as the sight of a lonely inn comes into view, a beacon of warmth and sustenance, where you sit and share the moments that matter.

Those moments, for me, were the rainbows and waterfalls, the spectacular views from The Wainstones and Carlton Bank that I shared with Dan and Adam. It was watching the moon rise on a cold night, laughing in a pub field, trying to find a pitch on a steep, rough slope, and sheltering under lush trees in torrential rain.

And it was meeting others along the way — the warm, unlikely couple at a pub bar, the ranger dealing with the devastating loss of habitat and wildlife caused by wildfires.

The fires had burned for three months on Flyingdales Moor — three months, for a moment of carelessness with a BBQ. On the final day, walking with Dan, we could see wisps of smoke rising through heavy rain.

The North York Moors section of the Coast to Coast, equally beautiful and brutal, offered a kinder end to the trail. The harsh weather had dissipated, and we walked the final three miles to Robin Hood’s Bay over undulating cliffs, along footpaths lined with long grasses and bracken tinged with bronze. 

It’s an odd feeling, reaching the end of an epic journey — a mix of euphoria and deflation: an ‘up-and-down’ as changeable as the weather. I had a knot in my stomach. Three miles to go — an hour’s walk — and then what?

I took the pebble from my pocket — one I’d faithfully carried from St Bees — and dropped it into the sea.

Then my phone battery died. Maybe that was fitting. No photos. No announcement. Just the sea.

What To Expect On The North York Moors

Tips For Planning Your Hike

• The terrain is surprising: as well as tracks across open moorland, there are some significant hills — with climbs to get the quads burning!
• Navigation is straightforward, but take care at path junctions in fog and bad weather (it can change quickly, even in summer)
• Savour the highlights, including the views from The Wainstones and Carlton Bank (first image), the villages and pubs along the way, and the final stretch along the coast to Robin Hood’s Bay, where there are plenty of places to celebrate the end of your walk on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast

Until the next trail — thanks for reading, and

Happy hiking.