Coast to Coast Maps, GPX Files and Guidebooks

The Coast to Coast became a National Trail on 26 March 2026, but the mapping has not caught up with the acorns. The current OS sheets do not show the route, the FAQ is candid that it is not yet waymarked as a single continuous path, and the stage pages name the moorland crossings where a compass bearing is the only reliable way across in mist. So this is a walk where the maps you carry, the GPX you load and the book you read all matter more than on a signed trail. This guide lists them, with the facts taken from the publishers' own pages.

OS Explorer sheets

Ordnance Survey sells the route as a boxed set of ten Explorer sheets at 1:25,000 — four centimetres to the kilometre — which the OS shop lists as OL4, OL5, OL7, OL19, OL26, OL27, OL30, 302, 303 and 304. Buying the set also gives a code for the digital versions in the OS Maps app.

The stage pages name specific sheets where navigation is the crux, which is the best guide to which ones you will actually open:

The remaining sheets — OL30 and 302, 303 and 304 — cover the ground between, and the OS set page lists the full run. One retailer lists the set as nine sheets without OL7; the two Lakeland stage pages above both call for OL7, so treat ten as the number.

Two cautions from Ordnance Survey's own page. The route is not drawn on current editions: rights of way and paths are shown, but there is no specific feature for the Coast to Coast, and OS says it will be added in future editions now that the walk is a waymarked trail. And the National Trail's information page says its own website carries the most accurate and up-to-date line, because OS maps may show slightly outdated information — which matters at the two current diversions, on St Bees Head and at the A19 crossing.

The Harvey strip map

Harvey's Coast to Coast XT40 puts the whole route on one double-sided waterproof sheet at 1:40,000, with the route clearly marked, the entire line split into sections, and rights of way shown. Harvey quotes the walk at 307 km (192 miles). It is the light option — one sheet instead of ten — and the one most walkers who use baggage transfer carry, with an OS sheet for the Lakeland days if they want the extra detail. At 1:40,000 it shows less than an Explorer sheet, which is the trade you are making.

GPX files

The official file. The National Trail publishes the route as a GPX download from the Create Your Own Trip tool beneath its interactive map. The trail team's own warning is worth repeating: the full GPX may contain multiple tracks, and some apps and websites cannot display it correctly. Open it in your app before you leave home and check that the line you see runs from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay without gaps. The interactive map is also where the two signed diversions are drawn — the start at St Bees, diverted after cliff falls on the headland, and the A19 crossing near Ingleby Arncliffe, where the approved route now runs north to the Black Swan Bridge.

The stage lines on this site. Every distance and ascent figure on the stage pages is measured along the GPX line of that stage rather than copied from a guidebook table, which is why the sixteen stages sum to 186.9 miles against the 190 headline. Where the route forks, the stage page says which line was measured: stage 8 is the red May-to-July line at 17.5 km, and the Nine Standards page describes the blue and green variants. The route alternatives guide covers the other forks.

In the app. The free Coast to Coast app has all 16 stages mapped with elevation profiles, water points and points of interest, and downloads the whole route for offline use — the app page's advice is to download before you leave the last village with a bar of reception. It gives an off-route alert the moment you drift from the line, and its route builder can import GPX tracks, combine stages and share them, so the official file or a guidebook's file can be loaded alongside the stage lines. Get it from the download page.

Guidebooks

Three books cover the route, and they are different enough that the choice is not arbitrary.

Alfred Wainwright, A Coast to Coast Walk. The original, first published in 1973, in which Wainwright devised the route. The Wainwright Society's page records that a second edition was published in June 2010 by Frances Lincoln, completely revised and updated by Chris Jesty, and is kept updated with the Society's help. The Society became the route's Responsible Organisation in 2012 and installed waymarkers carrying Wainwright's signature on finger posts, which you will still see alongside the new acorns. It is the book to read before you go rather than the one to navigate from, because the route on the ground has moved in places since it was drawn.

Terry Marsh, Walking the Coast to Coast Path (Cicerone). Cicerone's page lists the fifth edition, subtitled National Trail — St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay, for publication on 18 September 2026, with a 1:25,000 OS map booklet, the route described in 13 stages with alternative itineraries of 15 to 19 days, and downloadable GPX files. The map booklet is the reason people buy it: the Explorer mapping for the whole route in a pocket, without the ten sheets.

Henry Stedman and Joel Newton, Coast to Coast Path: St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay (Trailblazer). The tenth edition, per Trailblazer's page, with 109 trail maps at just under 1:20,000, 8 town plans, 14 stage maps and 2 overview maps. The hand-drawn maps are annotated with timings and turn-by-turn notes, and the book is the fullest for accommodation and places to eat. Like all Trailblazer guides it is a walking guide first, not a map; you still want a compass and a sheet with contours for the fell days.

None of the three is the site's recommendation over the others. We have no commercial relationship with any of the publishers.

Where navigation actually matters

The stage pages grade navigation as well as fitness, and it is worth knowing where the maps come out of the bag:

• Stage 2, Loft Beck to the Drum House. Boggy, the path indistinct in mist, and no easy escape between Ennerdale Water and Honister; carry map and compass and the skills to use them.
• Stage 3, Greenup Edge. The cairned path is easy to lose in mist and many walkers go astray; the stage notes say to carry OL4 and OL7, a compass and the GPX, and to take the correct line into Far Easedale.
• Stage 5, High Street and Kidsty Pike. Pathless and boggy sections; map-and-compass navigation essential in poor visibility, and no phone signal on the tops.
• Stage 7, Ravenstonedale Moor. The path is faint or pathless with few landmarks; the principal risk is losing the line in mist.
• Stage 8, Nine Standards Rigg. The navigational crux of the route: open, featureless, notoriously hard to follow in mist, and the safety note says competence with map and compass — taking and following a bearing — is essential, and not to rely on phone-only navigation. In poor visibility take the green route regardless of the calendar.
• Stage 14, the Blakey moor. Straightforward in clear weather, disorientating in cloud or snow; carry OL26, compass and GPS.
• Stage 16, the Graystone Hills. Boggy and easy to get wrong in mist, with a common error leading walkers off-line; carry OL27 and compass or GPS.

Everywhere else the route follows valleys, lanes, riversides or flagged moorland where the new acorns and the app's off-route alert are enough. The weather escapes guide says what to do when the visibility goes on the stages above.

What to actually carry

For most walkers: the Harvey sheet or the Cicerone map booklet, a baseplate compass, the app with the whole route downloaded, and a spare battery. Add the relevant OS Explorer sheet for stages 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 if you want the detail those stage pages assume. The packing list puts all of it in the daypack.