Cleveland Way, England

The Cleveland Way is a UK National Trail running 177 kilometres (110 miles) through ancient Cleveland in northern England. Cleveland walking tours, a modern-day walking path was developed in the 1930s and follows the old stock driving routes between Scotland and London. Skirting the North York Moors, the Cleveland Way offers a trail combining dramatic coastline with atmospheric heather moorland-with plenty of beautiful castles, ancient ruins, coastal towns, natural beauty, and fishing villages to explore along the way. It is a favourite walking route among Britain’s many guided walking holidays.

Cleveland means “cliff-land” and was originally named by Vikings, referring to the hills they encountered in the region during the earliest Viking raids in England. While this area dates back to ancient times, Cleveland Way‘s development began in the modern era, in the 1930s, in an effort to provide a safe long distance trail in the northeast of Yorkshire along a coastal footpath offering a walking holiday before the age of jet travel. The trail was not officially opened until 1969, but it would be one of the earliest hike (walk) to be opened to the public, being only the second official National Trail in the United Kingdom.

The Cleveland walking tours today will take you from Helmsley, a lovely market town south of the North York MoorsNational Park, looping north and down to Filey in the eastern edge of the coast, in a horseshoe configuration. About half of the full trail is inland, weaving in and out of the North York Moors to bring you along the coast, past the occasional lighthouse, Whitby and its castle ruins.

This is a stunning walk and with Odyssey, this is a small group guided tour walking holiday with good accommodation, allowing you to experience beautiful scenery, and diverse moorland and seaside flora and fauna. This is a nine-day walking route that can be broken down into sections. You can have a day tour or a weekend walking holiday, spending the night at a Yorkshire accommodation. Some businesses also offer luggage transfers, moving your luggage from one hotel to the next as you proceed down the Cleveland Way.

The coastal part of the walk may be challenging for some, but the views will more than make up for it. You will come across several stunning heritage sites in the North Yorkshire area, such as Whitby Abbey and Scarborough Castle. The clifftop section also takes you to Port Mulgrave, which used to be the centre of ironstone mining in the mid-19 th century.

The Cleveland Way connects with other long distance trails, such as the Wainwright Walking Trail, also known as the Coast to Coast Walk, which ends at Robin Hoods Bay, going through the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. ( Read more in our article on walking the Wainwright Walking Trail .) If you enjoyed the coastline segments of the Cleveland Way and would like to go on more walking holidays, another National Trail to consider is the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, which covers around 300 kilometres (186 miles) of the British coastline.

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