I have now planned my itinerary/booked my accommodation for next May’s crossing. I had to start a day earlier than planned because Black Sail Hut and Patterdale YH were both fully booked for the other dates. Also only managed to get my 3rd choice at Reeth, so it looks like bookings are being made well in advance for next year!

Anyway here it is, comments welcome.

Day 1 - Early morning train to St Bees, walk to Cleator – Parkside Hotel
Day 2 - Ennerdale, Black Sail Hut YH
Day 3 - Longthwaite via Haystacks and trip to slate mine, Borrowdale YH
Day 4 - Grasmere via Helm Crag, Thorney Howe YH
Day 5 - Patterdale via St Sunday Crag, Patterdale YH
Day 6 - Shap, Brookfield Guest House
Day 7 - Kirby Stephen, Redmayne House
Day 8 - Keld, Keld Lodge
Day 9 - Reeth, Hillary House
Day 10 - Catterick Bridge, St Giles Farm
Day 11 - Ingleby Cross, Somerset House Farm
Day 12 - Clay Bank Top, staying with friends
Day 13 - Blakey Ridge, August Guest House
Day 14 - Littlebeck, Intake Farm
Day 15 - Robin Hood’s Bay, The Villa


The higher routes will depend on weather conditions, but really looking forward to these as I have not been up any of them.
After doing the Dales Way, I decided to break the days up as much as I could. My average walking speed is 2mph to allow for photo’s and stops when I need them. I did not enjoy having to rush through some of the walking days and miss out on taking in the scenery.

To say I am excited is an understatement 

Despite being your third choice Hillary House in Reeth is pretty good although perhaps not if you don't like parrots! Not far from the pubs.

I was reading about their parrot and other animals, will make for an interesting stop over! Good to know it's not far from that pubs.

Whilst I guess it is a matter of taste I prefer The King’s Arms. You will have to walk about 30 yards past the first pub which will make it about 100 yards in total from Hillary House if you can walk that far! Very friendly bar staff and the locals do appear to be genuinely pleased to see you and chat, the pub has a nice big open fire.

I don't think any two places in Reeth could be described by anything other than 'near to'...

I agree about The Kings Arms, lots of food and good too (well if you like pub food).

Hi Calluna,
Me and my girlfriend are all booked up for May 2010 too. Our itinerary is as follows;

4th May. St Bees. Abbey Farmhouse
5th May. Ennerdale Bridge.Ennerdale View.
6th May. Stonethwaite. Stonethwaite Farm.
7th May. Grasmere. Chestnut Villa.
8th May. Patterdale. Braestaeds Farm.
9th May. Shap. Armitage.
10th May. Orton. Mostyn House.
11th May. Kirkby Stephen. Old Croft House.
12th May. Keld. Keld Lodge
13th May. Reeth. Walpardo.
14th May. Richmond. Willance House.
15th May. Danby Wiske. Ashfield House.
16th May. Ingleby Cross. Somerset House.
17th May. Great Broughton. Ingle Hill
18th May. Blakey Ridge. High Blakey House.
19th May. Grosmont. Hollins Lodge.
20th May. Robin Hoods Bay. The Boat House.


We're really looking forward to the walk and all comments about the accommodation and daily distances (mostly around 10 miles) would be welcomed. We understand that we are taking longer than average to do the walk,but we remained cautious in the planning stages and would rather it takes us longer than try to do it too quickly.

Regards C2Cer

Hi c2cer

I'm right behind you, will be in Keld Lodge the night after you!! (Keep the room tidy

The only one I stayed at whilst doing the C2C was Willance House which was fine with a reasonably sized room and from memory the breakfast was good. You probably already know but "Willance House is a charming oak beamed house that was built in 1600. It is the oldest house in Richmond".

I have stayed at the Keld YH doing the Pennine Way the accommodation was fine although I expect that it is even better now albeit a lot more expensive!

Nice to see enthusiasm and your schedule looks good. I will be doing the walk with my 2 pointer gun dogs a month after you, so will track your posts.
I plan to have 7 nights out and have only had real difficulty getting accomodation around Kirkby Steven and this is because of Appleby Fair. My schedule is pushing it, but I have a business and even 8 days off is hard.
Anyway, good luck with your preparations, keep us posted.

I don't set off until the 19th May, so you will be doing your last day when I start my first.
You were lucky to get booked into High Blakey House. I rang them, emailed them and filled in their online booking form. Not one single response! I gave up after 2 weeks waiting and booked elswhere.

I bet you are both as excited as me, good idea to take it slow - I would have added another day myself if I could have more holidays from work.