Volunteers at work building the boardwalk

Walkers nearing the end of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk will be able to keep their boots a little drier thanks to work improving the route.

Volunteers from the North York Moors national park have built a 65m boardwalk through woods south of Littlebeck, avoiding a ford near Falling Foss waterfall.

The authority said the ford can be slippery and often floods, becoming impassable. The national park authority has created a second path running alongside May beck providing an alternative to the ford crossing.

The new path makes use of an old stone arch bridge to cross the beck and joins the Coast to Coast route higher up.

The path has been boardwalked affording an easier passage not only for Coast to Coast walkers, but also for families who visit the area to see Falling Foss waterfall. The boardwalk meanders through the woodland above the beck and has two raised viewing areas offering views of May Beck and its stone arch bridge.

Naomi Green, northern area senior ranger at the national park, said: “The recent wet weather has led to some really challenging conditions but our volunteers battled on regardless to get the job done.

“The boardwalk, one of the longest in the national park, provides a clean, easy to use and enjoyable path which is also suitable for the less able and pushchairs.

The completed boardwalk

“I hope those who make use of it over the coming months say a silent thanks to our hard working volunteers for all their effort.”

Jack Newman, who runs a nearby tea garden said: “We are absolutely delighted with the new boardwalk. It will make a huge difference to so many of our customers that regularly walk the Falling Foss to May Beck path.

“Although we keep a supply of emergency socks and trousers behind our counter, the boardwalk will certainly reduce the number of wet feet and muddy bottoms that we see in the garden.

“Hats off to Naomi and all the volunteers that have worked so hard to make this happen.”

Devised by Alfred Wainwright, the Coast to Coast Walk passes through three national parks, the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, on its 309km (192-mile) route from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire.

Tens of thousands of people walk the route each year and in 2004 it was named the second best walk in the world.