The novel’s setting along the Coast to Coast Walk in northern England is crucial to its plot, themes, and character development. The route offers a challenging and deeply rewarding journey through England’s iconic landscape. The walk’s diverse terrain, ranging from rugged mountains to rolling hills and moorlands, and the area’s constantly changing weather conditions both demand endurance and resilience. However, the stunning scenery and sense of achievement in completing the journey make it one of the world’s most popular long-distance walks. The protagonists’ navigation of the route shapes their growth as they face physical challenges while absorbing the landscape’s scenic beauty.

Spanning approximately 192 miles (309 km), the Coast to Coast Walk proceeds from the Irish Sea on the west coast at St. Bees, Cumbria, to the North Sea on the east coast at Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire. Legendary fell walker and guidebook author Alfred Wainwright conceived the route in 1973. You Are Here summarizes the distinctive style of Wainwright’s guide to the walk: “[T]he prose fine and sturdy as a dry-stone wall, the Illustrations densely cross-hatched, lovely but as gloomy as a walking map of Mordor” (33).