IT is now 45 years since Alfred Wainwright devised and wrote his guidebook of the Coast to Coast walk. By this time in 1972 he was well known for his seven pictorial guides to the Lakeland Fells and decided to create his own long distance walk that linked the two coastlines of England.

Starting at St Bees Head on the Cumberland coast and finishing at Robin Hoods Bay on the Yorkshire coast, this walk was a masterpiece of inspiration and a touch of genius taking the walker through three major National Parks – The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to link the two chosen ends by a more satisfying route.

Over the years, this walk has been completed by thousands, if not millions of walkers and in a recent international poll of long distance walks was voted the second best walk in the world, only being pipped by a walk on the South Island of New Zealand.

Throughout the last 45 years, minor changes to Wainwright’s original route have been made either on grounds of environmental sustainability for example over Nine Standards Rigg, or those made available as a result of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

Terry Marsh, author of this new guide, has many walking books to his name, mainly in Cumbria, The Lake District and The Yorkshire Dales. He wrote his first guide to this walk in 1993, a year before Chris Jesty revised Wainwright’s original guide for Frances Lincoln, the publishers of the Wainwright series. Now, 24 years later, Terry has brought this up to date with a number of changes. The most striking of these is the avoidance of much of the road walking in the Vale of Mowbray and a small detour off-route to Osmotherley to give a comfortable 13-day itinerary for the walker with an average of 14 miles per day. Accompanying the book itself which contains a step by step guide each day, is a 98-page route map booklet on a scale of 1:25,000, the scale to be found these days for all Explorer maps.

The route guide is clear and concise and traverses the walk from West to East which is the most common way of completing the Coast to Coast Walk. Some people I know prefer to walk in the opposite direction in order to finish with the Lake District section last. However, most travel West to East in order to have the prevailing winds behind them. For those travelling in “the opposite direction” Terry has included a couple of pages at the end of each stage with the East to West route annotated.

As well as the 187 pages of route descriptions (one page for each mile) the guidebook also contains sections on planning your walk, all about the region, useful contacts, accommodation and further reading.

The book and route map booklet are well protected in a waterproof cover, a necessity considering the fickle weather encountered on this walk. This is the most up to date guide of the Coast to Coast walk, and well worth investing in by anyone planning to walk the route over the next year or two.