The Lyke Wake walk is a 41 mile walk across the North Yorkshire Moors national Park, staring at Osmotherley in the West and finishing at Ravenscar on the East coast. It is a stunning walk and can be done in 2 -3 days, or like us do it in one day as a challenge, but we would strongly suggest some sort of support vehicle if you’re going to try it in one go. There are several steep ascents and some tricky sections across areas of peat bog. However, there is lots of beautiful moorland scenery and spectacular views from the high points which reach a peak of almost 1500ft at Bolton Head.
The walk is simply stunning, there are some spectacular views, lots of wildlife and heaps of history. It is certainly one of our favourite walks and is highly recommended for those adventurous souls. A route description follows which is broken down into 10 legs, and at the end of each leg there is a road and an opportunity for your support vehicle to meet you.
We completed the route in 17.5 hours, so ideally you want to be doing this walk in mid summer to avoid walking in the dark. We started the walk at 06.20hrs on 25/06/22, so ideally the weekend closest to the longest day (i.e maximum daylight hours), but even on the longest day we still walked the last hour in the dark using headtorches.
As it is a linear route, it will require some forward planning about cars/accomodation/lifts etc, but there are car parks at either end. There are very few footpath signs on the whole route, so you either need some decent map reading skills, a detailed route description (which is hopefully what we are providing here), or both.
Starting location – Cod Beck Reservoir, Quarry Lane, DL6 3DW. Grid Ref SE 46754 99283. W3W ///sunflower.theme.jetted
At the start point there are a couple of free car parks. The starting post is more or less opposite the smaller car park that is closest to the reservoir, but if you cant get in here there is a larger car park just around the corner and only a short walk to the start post for the obligatory photograph with happy nervous smiling faces full of excitement.
Leg 1 - Cod Beck Reservoir Car Park to Huthwaite Green. Distance - 4.2km. Time - 1hr 13min. Height climbed - 72 metres
From the Starting stone walk on Quarry Lane back towards the large car park on your right, and keep on Quarry lane. Ignore the footpath and bridge to your right at the bend in the road, continue around the left hand bend and now starts a steady climb uphill. As you start to drop down the other side look for the Public right of way on the right, there is a NO ENTRY sign here, but it is a public right of way, so you can either climb the gate and follow the public right of way, or continue down the road for about 50 metres to the cattle grid and find the footpath on the right. This is now signposted the ‘Cleveland Way’, and you’re basically following part of the Cleveland way for a few miles from this point. Both routes merge after about 100 metres. This is a lovely section of the walk with lots of wild flowers either side of the path, Ignore the first track in the woods to the right, there’s another No Entry sign, and the landowners here clearly don’t want people going up into the woods.
Where the path crosses a track just out of the forest you need to go straight across and after a few metres the path bends right, a Cleveland way sign should point you in the right direction. There’s another stunning woodland section in front of you, and as the forest opens on the right take the first path down across the field. The top section of the field where the stream is can be a bit boggy and slippy, so watch your steps here.
Leg 2 - Huthwaite Green to Lordstones. Distance - 4.6km. Time 1hr 45min. Height climbed 278 metres
Leg 3 - Lordstones to Clay Bank. Distance - 5.5km. Time - 2hr 4min. Height climbed 325 metres
4. Clay Bank to The Lion Inn 15.45km 4h 25min 263 metres
5. The Lion Inn to Seavey Hill 4.8km 1h 17min 39 metres
6. Seavey Hill to Shunner Howe 5km 1hr 19min 38 metres
7. Shunner Howe to Wheeldale Road 6.4km 1hr 37min 13 metres
8. Wheeldale Road to Eller Beck Bridge 5.4km 1hr 38min 179 metres
9. Eller Beck Bridge to Stony Marl Moor 9.4km 2hr 46min 206 metres
10. Stony Marl Moor to Scarborough Rd 2.8km 50min 72 metres
