Coast to Coast Path National Trail Launch
In March 2026 launch events were held in each of the three National Parks on the route and Society representatives were invited to speak about Wainwright’s Coast to Coast legacy
The official designation of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk as a National Trail in March 2026 was marked by three launch events in each of the National Parks through which the route passes. Representatives of the Wainwright Society attended these celebration events, to which organisations, staff and volunteers involved in the upgrading project of the route to National Trail standard were invited. Our Society representatives were invited to speak about Wainwright’s Coast to Coast legacy at each of the events, which also included walks along sections of the trail.
Society Secretary, Kate Young, attended the event at Ennerdale Bridge in the Lake District National Park on Monday 23 March. Footsteps Editor, Nick Burton, attended the event at Robin Hood’s Bay in the North York Moors National Park on Wednesday 25 March. The final event at Reeth in the Yorkshire Dales National Park on Thursday 26 March was attended by Derek and Alison Cockell and David Johnson. Both Derek and David have been involved with the Society’s campaign for the Coast to Coast Walk to be recognised as a National Trail for many years.
The Wainwright Society has long had the ambition to see the Coast to Coast Walk designated as a National Trail, this suggestion first being mooted at a Committee Meeting in October 2006, and then officially proposed at the Society’s AGM in 2007, the centenary year of Alfred Wainwright’s birth. In 2013, Society members walked individual sections of the whole route to survey it and raise money for charity. Donations raised paid for waymarkers along the route.
At the Reeth event, held in the Dales Bike Centre, Derek Cockell, on behalf of the Wainwright Society, was presented with a commemorative Coast to Coast National Trail signpost blade by former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, the MP for Richmond and Northallerton. Mr. Sunak spearheaded the campaign for the route to have National Trail status, government approval for this finally being achieved in 2022.
Wainwright himself was clearly proud of his creation and, as an avid reader of maps, he would be delighted that his Coast to Coast Walk will now be marked on the maps of the Ordnance Survey, an organisation he long admired. Interestingly, in his large format book, Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk (1987), he took pleasure in the fact that his walk was recognised officially, albeit with a signpost in the town of Shap:
‘There is personal gratification at this point, however, the highway authorities having erected a ‘Coast to Coast’ signpost – official recognition at last!’
