C2C Day 1 - St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

Tuesday 2nd August 2011

Walking Diary (All Walks) Long Distance Walks Coast to Coast 2011

C2C Day 1 - St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge.

The Coast to Coast starts in style at St Bees rising high up onto the cliffs and providing amazing views along the coastline. An air of excitement is present as we do the customary wetting of the boots in the Irish Sea and the selection of a pebble to carry 200 miles all the way to Robin Hoods Bay. This Coast to Coast had been something I had been planning for a year - mainly to celebrate my 50th birthday in this instance. But it sowed the seed of wanting to do a Long Distance Walk every summer and so started one of the best and most enjoyable things anyone can do - a long distance walk.

The first day of the coast to coast is pretty average, going through mining villages such as Cleater and Moor Row but the first signs of improvement arrive with the climb up Dent and then after that... well your in the lakes, What more can I say !! Nannycatch Gate and then onto the sleepy little village of Ennerdale Bridge.

A reasonably hard day - but with harder ones to come, Ennerdale Bridge is a great little place to enjoy your first night with a few beers in either The Shepherds Arms or the Fox & Hounds.

The information contained in the material on this Website is for information purposes only and does not constitute advice.
Distance: 16.4 miles
Duration: 8:30 hours
Ascent: 2557 ft
Difficulty: Moderate/Hard
Accompanied By: Paul
Weather: Warm with Sunny Intervals

3D outline of route

Parking

The customary requirement to pick a pebble from the Irish Sea shoreline at St Bees - and try an make sure you don't lose it before you get to throw it in the North Sea at Robin Hoods Bay - There's so many to choose from, this took a while before the best one was found !

Big Paul & Little Paul

The waiting and planning is finally over, we say goodbye to middle sized Paul, who very kindly had given us a lift all the way to St Bees - and we're off. This was a truly exciting moment.

Just to rub it in !

As the first climb of the walk is easily completed, we look back towards St Bees

St Bees Lighthouse on St Bees Head. It was at this point, with my brand new GPS in hand plus a trailblazer guide book - that a mile into the walk we managed to go the wrong way and headed inland down a track. Soon corrected, but maybe this will take more than the 190 miles to complete ! Next challenge, a bull in the field !! This is fun !

You don't see many of these along the way. I'm sure the C2C will one day become a National Trail - It should be already, but until then the signage availanle is limited

Moor Row and traces of the old railway line

After the uninspiring Moor Row and Cleater Moor, we finally head out into the countryside and look forward to the first reasonable climb (The outlying fell of Dent)

Dent - Probably the nicest part of the first day as the Western Lakes scenery comes fully into view.

Nannycatch Gate is where the Nannycatch Valley meets the Nannycatch Road. It's not a gate as such, just the beginning of the Valley.