Walking from Coast to Coast

Check into your B&B, a convenient short walk from St Bees railway station.

You're now in the Lake District National Park and the day starts with a walk along Ennerdale Water with superb views of the approaching fells. From here, you have a choice: either go high up to Red Pike and over High Stile onto the iconic Haystacks and past Inominate Tarn (where Wainwright’s ashes were scattered) or follow a gentler route up to Black Sail Youth Hostel and then up Loft Beck. Both routes take you to Honister Slate mine – the last working slate mine in England - before a descent into the village of Rosthwaite.

All walkers climb up to Grisedale Hause with gorgeous views back towards Grasmere. From here, you have the option to go even higher and up the famous Helvellyn peak or onto St Sunday Crag – with far reaching views as far as Ullswater – before coming down Grisedale into Patterdale. Alternatively, take the direct route down Grisedale to the village.

There is less climbing today than the previous two days. Set off through fields to Shap Abbey, the ruins of a monastery founded in the 13th century. The monks abandoned it to Henry V111 in 1540 and since then it has served as a memory of a bygone era. After passing through the small town of Shap, the route crosses into the Westmorland Fells in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. From here, the vistas change from dramatic granite rocks to an open limestone landscape as you continue to the tiny village of Orton.

Leave Kirkby Stephen via the picture postcard village of Hartley, then the route gets hillier once again as you climb up and over the Nine Standards - a very distinctive feature on the fell, where Cumbria crosses into Yorkshire and the watershed between the Irish Sea and the North Sea meets. End the day in peaceful Keld, a former lead-mining village.

Today's more leisurely stage takes you across verdant meadows and through pretty villages. Take time to explore Marrick Priory, a 12th century Benedictine nuns’ monastery, abandoned during the 16th-century religious wars. Overnight in the pretty market town of Richmond, with its quaint cobbled streets and imposing Norman Castle.

Continue your approach towards the North York Moors National Park - and its hills! - along flat footpaths and farm tracks, passing brightly coloured rapeseed fields and sleepy livestock. Depending on accommodation availability, you overnight in either Ingleby Cross or Osmotherley.

After you are dropped off back at Clay Bank Top, it feels like you are on a high mountain, but the North York Moors is only 4-500m above sea level. Today's stretch brings you across the plateau, along the route of an abandoned mine railway to The Lion Inn pub. Originally a 16th-century hunting lodge, it's the third highest pub in England and the only building for miles around.

Start the day with a steep road climb up onto the moor before descending into beautiful Littlebeck – but not before catching a glimpse of the sea and the breathtaking Whitby Abbey! Through Falling Foss woods with its hidden follies, walk over the last section of the Moors. The final stretch takes you from High Hawsker along the top of the Jurassic cliffs – with stunning coastal scenery and the sight of a dolphin if you’re lucky. There are gorgeous vistas of Robin Hood’s Bay as you descend to this beautiful old fishing village. On arrival, don’t forget to throw your St Bees’ stone into the North Sea. Congratulations - You've crossed England!