Lyke Wake Walk

The Lyke Wake Walk is a linear, point-to-point crossing of the North York Moors, walked west to east from the Lyke Wake marker stone at Cod Beck Reservoir near Osmotherley to the Lyke Wake Stone at Ravenscar. Call it 40 miles (64 km) in total, with roughly 1,434 m of cumulative ascent. The tradition is to finish inside 24 hours; a realistic ordinary time, stops included, is about 16 to 20 hours. This is a route for highly fit, experienced long-distance hikers, and the national park itself describes it as notorious and worth serious preparation and support.

Going east from Osmotherley means you hit the steeper Cleveland Hills while you are still fresh, then settle into long stretches of high moorland. The middle miles are open heather and historic tracks with broad high-point views down into the valleys, and the eastern moors run you out toward the coast at Ravenscar. Sampled ground along the stored corridor sits roughly between 200 and 450 m, so you are up in the exposed stuff for hours at a time. The scenery and the coastal finish are the whole reward.

Underfoot it keeps changing: firm path, flagstone and gravel sections, open moorland track, rough ground, and genuine bog.

• The early Cleveland Way section is generally clearer and better surfaced.
• After the Lion Inn the walking gets more demanding.
• Loose Howe to Shunner Howe is the crux: wet, boggy and hard to follow, with marker sticks and boundary features doing most of the navigational work.

There are few dedicated signs across the crossing as a whole, so treat this as a self-navigated route. Carry offline mapping and a paper map, know how to use a compass in poor visibility, and have a bail-out plan before you start rather than improvising one at 3am on the moor.

Because it is linear, sort the far end first. A support vehicle, a pre-arranged lift, or accommodation at Ravenscar all work; nothing else really does. The western start is reached via Quarry Lane near Osmotherley at the Cod Beck Reservoir marker stone, and the route guide notes free car parks at the start. Long summer daylight makes a single-push attempt far more sensible than trying it around the short days, when most of the crossing would be done in the dark.

The route uses public rights of way and crosses moorland open access land. Under current park guidance dogs are not allowed on most moorland open access land and must stay on public rights of way there, so bring a dog only if you are prepared to keep to those legal lines. On moorland, keep dogs on a lead under 2 m from 1 March to 31 July, and keep firm control around livestock and nesting birds.

It is long, exposed, wet in the middle, thin on signage, and the logistics are more work than the walk for some people. If you want the same moorland character with clearer waymarking and the option of shorter days, the Cleveland Way nearby is the easier proposition, though it is a different route with a different line.