For years now, we’ve been talking about how we would love to tackle one of Britain’s many long distance paths. Top of the list are iconic trails like the Pennine Way and the Coast to Coast, as well as a few less celebrated routes like the Cumbrian Way and the Northumberland Coast Path. Unfortunately, an aborted attempt at the Northumberland Coast Path a few years ago revealed the hard truth to us: the whole time we have Merry in a room with us, we aren’t going to get more than a few hours continuous sleep overnight. Not what you need to be tackling miles and miles everyday, especially with no choice but to continue whatever the weather!
Compromising somewhat, we’ve decided to spend this summer tackling one of our more local trails in day-trippable sections from home. Not quite the same as doing one of these paths all in one go, it’s still a bit of a shake up from our normal circular walks, and it’s a great way to see some new scenery in our local area.
Originally the plan was to tackle the Lyke Wake Walk, a 40 mile trail running from Cod Beck reservoir near Osmotherley to Ravenscar on the coast. Sam has run this a few times and we’d spoken a few times before about doing it as a walk, so plans were put in place and we got ready to set off on the first leg towards the end of May (the intention being to get up onto the high moors by August when the heather is fully out).
Unfortunately, on closer inspection of the route, we found that there are a couple of places where the route crosses access land with a dog ban in place, and all detours using public rights of way would have been fairly lengthy. We therefore decided to switch up and complete the Shepherd’s Round instead: a less well-known walk than the Lyke Wake, but following much of the first half of the route, before returning to Osmotherley via Hawnby instead of continuing onto the coast. Lengthwise it’s not too different, but there a fewer and shorter detours required to avoid land with dog bans.
Plan sorted, we set the date for leg 1, which would take us from Cod Beck near Osmotherley to the Wainstones. As the day approached, the weather forecast steadily worsened, until on the morning of the walk we decided to shave a few miles off and finish at Lord Stones county park instead. That way, if the weather was awful, at least we wouldn’t be out in it for too long.
We got to Cod Beck early to make sure we could get parked: it’s a popular spot, even if the weather isn’t particularly great. However, at 8am, we were nearly the first ones there. Grey and cloudy as the weather was (while also trying hard to rain), it couldn’t dampen our spirits as we set off down the road at the start of the walk.
Climbing gently away from the reservoir, we soon left the road to pick up the Cleveland Way as it runs through the woods behind Cod Beck. Even with the light being so bleak and grey, it was really lovely in here: everything was so fresh and green, and we even caught some bluebells hanging on here and there. It was extremely quiet too, which felt a bit strange given how busy we know the walk around the reservoir gets – not that we were complaining.
This was a theme throughout the day, with us hardly coming across any other walkers. From the first woods we picked up a quiet lane where we didn’t encounter any traffic, which led us into another woods in Swainby. We’ve visited this woods before and always found it pretty quiet, although I don’t remember the climb up onto the moor from the woods being quite as steep previously! Obviously with fresher legs it doesn’t feel quite as long. All of this leg followed the same route as the Lyke Wake Walk too, with sporadic coffin shaped way markers pointing the way.
Sadly, the views once we got up onto Live Moor weren’t at their best, which we knew from having been up here on sunnier days. Roseberry Topping was just about visible as a murky silhouette in the distance, but other than that we couldn’t really pick out any landmarks. As we trekked across the moor the cloud got denser and lower, eventually manifesting into a light mizzle which reduced visibility to a hundred metres or so and stifled the views entirely.
At this point I was feeling very glad we’d made the decision to leave the second car at Lord Stones and not 3.5 miles further on at the Wainstones. Yes, it’ll mean a short leg next time, but we’ve got time and I’d much rather make the most of the weather (or lack of). A short but steep descent down from the moor soon had us in the car park and jumping in to warm up. Irritatingly, about 20 minutes later the sun broke through and we had a lovely sunny afternoon. Never mind!
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. Aside from a few sections of road walking without pavements, this is a great route for dogs. Stile free, it also spends a good chunk of the walk in woodland, where you don’t need to worry about livestock. There was one short section where we crossed a field which periodically has cows in, but they weren’t out when we visited this time. On a warm day, you should carry extra water for your dog as paddling options are very limited, with just a few stream crossings near the middle of the walk.
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