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England Coast to Coast Hike - Good Eats?

I'm about two weeks away from my Coast to Coast hike in Northern England (St. Bees to Robin Hood's Bay). We're going to rely mostly on local recommendations for dinner while we're there (we're staying in B&B's and pubs in the evenings), but we know that some places require reservations for dinner. I wanted to see if anyone who has done the hike or knows the area well has recommendations for dinner (even if they don't require reservations...I would love to know)!

We're passing through:

-St Bees

-Ennerdale

-Rosthwaite

-Grasmere

-Patterdale

-Shap

-Kirby Stephen

-Keld

-Reeth

-Richmond

-Ingleby Arncliffe

-Great Broughton

-Blaisdale

-Robin Hood's Bay

Thanks!

Posted by
5837 posts

We pretty much ate local. With the exception of Kirkby Stevens, Richmond and Robin Hood's Bay, the "towns" are small villages where the only choice may be the local pub or the inn you are stay for the night. In some locations, our booking agent (Contours) made arrangements for our B&B host to provide the evening meal as the nearest pub was a long walk away. Your local host would be your best source of current dining options.

I will add that it seems that all or most of the walkers we encountered during the day congregated at the same pub to a great extent because there was only one pub in the village.

We found a nice Thai restaurant in Richmond. A nice change from pub food.

We reached Ingleby Arncliffe very late afternoon (our 23 mile day walking in a steady drizzle). The "afternoon tea" at our B&B revived us. The Blue Bell Inn in Ingleby Cross had limited dinner hours but our B&B host called to make sure that the Blue Bell would serve us dinner without us having to rush over before hot showers.

Posted by
5837 posts

An added not to "Good Eats?". Our booking company (Contours Walking Holiday) provided information sheets and supplemental walking instructions to go along with the guide book and OS maps in our travel packet. The information sheets advised as to the possibility of mid-day food and provisions sources.

Just as some overnight accommodations were not near pubs and required arranging for dinners provided by our B&B host, some legs of the walk were out in the bush the full day. On those days we were advised to arrange for packet lunches from or B&B host.

Several memorable lunch stops:

Sack Lunch on Helvellyn before descending to Patterdale.

Lord Stone Cafe, built into the hilltop was a hidden surprise crossing the Cleveland Hills to Clay Top Banks.

Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge between Clay Top Banks and Glaisdale. We departed in wind driven rain, missed the cut-off to Blakey Ridge walking an extra 1 or 2 km to the Lion Inn. If it were not for the bowl of hot soup at the Lion Inn, I could not have made it to Glaisdale.