Originally compiled in the 1950s early 1960s, the Wainwright walking guides are perhaps the most distinctive and unusual such guides ever devised. The result of research by their namesake and author over a period of 13 years, the guides have retained their original format and design to this day. The books contain intricate hand drawn sketches by the author, detailing routes of ascent, and gradients of the hills in and around the Lake District and outlying regions.

"A Coast to Coast Walk" was devised by Wainwright himself and stretches across 190 miles from St Bees Head on the East coast to Robin Hood's Bay on the West, passing through the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.