The Lyke Wake Walk (Part One)

Some years ago I read about a challenge walk across the North Yorkshire moors from Osmotherley in the west to Ravenscar on the coast in the east. The crossing covers a distance of forty two miles sticking principally to the heather clad high moorland with very few roads. The name of this crossing is The Lyke Wake Walk and it gets its title from the practice of carrying the dead from outlying hamlets to holy ground where the deceased would be given a Christian burial. In the old Yorkshire dialect a Lyke is a dead person and a Wake is the practice of keeping watch over the deceased until they are buried.

This was a walk that I added to my Bucket list along with the Camino de Santiago de Compostella and The Pennine Way. Being an Ex-Serviceman and Police Officer I tend to have a very dark sense of humour and the thought of following an ancient coffin road really appealed to me. My good friend and walking pal Neill approached me a few months ago and asked if I was still interested in completing this challenge as he was planning on undertaking it with a team of Volunteer Police Cadets from Bromley. Like a fool I committed myself to this challenge.......and if we had known what we were about to go through we should all have been committed under the Mental Health Act for even thinking about it.

To complete the challenge and be eligible to join the exclusive Lyke Wake Club you must succeed in walking the distance within twenty-four hours. This would be a fairly easy undertaking if the route ran through Norfolk, Holland or Denmark. Unfortunately it doesn't, it runs through some pretty tough terrain with a great number of steep ascents and descents and a very large peat bog in the middle of it. The weather can also cause problems for prospective walkers so a rucksack containing waterproofs, spare fleece, hat, gloves, water, food, emergency bivvy bag, first aid kit, map and compass also had to be carried.

The walk can be done either unsupported or supported with a back up team in a vehicle who can meet the walkers at check points along the route with food, drinks etc. Being responsible adults (I know I can't believe that I said that either) we decided to have a support team in a minibus. They would meet us where the route bisected a number of small roads of varying distances apart along the way. The furthest distance between the check points was ten miles and the shortest was 1.3 miles, but this was at the very end.

We spent the night before the start in the excellent Youth Hostel at Cote Ghyll on the edge of Osmotherley only a short distance from the official start line at Scarth Wood Moor. We were due to commence the challenge at 3.30 a.m. so decided on an early night, however as every body was hyped up for the off we didn't manage more than about three hours sleep. There was also a group of teenagers from a church group in Florida staying at the hostel and we stayed up later than we intended talking to them. They were very pleasant with superb manners and they also promised to keep the noise down when they went to bed so as not to disturb us. But as you know, teenagers are teenagers no matter where they are from and although they tried their best to whisper it was a very loud whisper. I woke up at two a.m. to the low base throb of a music system that one of them had forgotten to switch off. So much for feeling refreshed ready for the day!

Note: The two maps shown above were taken (with thanks) from the Lyke Wake Club website and the satellite view was taken from a photograph on the wall of Cote Ghyll Youth Hostel