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Tuesday 17th June 2008
13.5 miles on Cleveland Way, total of 15.5 miles walking
Click here for all our photographs taken today
We had a very pleasant breakfast at Lee-Side, with three German guests who were also staying there, then we walked down through Robin Hood's Bay, just managing to squeeze past a lorry delivering beer to one of the pubs on the hill (cars certainly couldn't get past). We stopped at the Muir Lea Stores to get our passports stamped and to buy provisions for lunch; there wasn't a great deal of choice, but the Wensleydale and apples that we bought were delicious when we ate them later in the day.
A notice on the way into Robin Hood's Bay had alerted us to erosion around Boggle Hole and to the fact that it is safe to walk along the beach to Stroupe Beck. However a lot of the 'beach' is actually rock, so we decided that walking on the beach might be difficult and headed up Albion Street and then up Flagstaff Steps to the top of the cliff. The rock on the beach is 'scar' - concentric circles of small ledges; all that is left of a dome-shaped landform that was centred out in the bay and subsequently eroded by the sea. We walked along the cliffs then down to Boggle Hole. We've done this section of the walk before, when we were too mean to pay for parking in Robin Hood's Bay, and more recently Helen and Tom stayed in the youth hostel at Boggle Hole.
After Boggle Hole we climbed back to the cliffs before eventually descending to the beach at Stroupe Beck Sands. A horse was being exercised here, apparently in preparation for dressage. There were also several people above - we discovered why when we found a car park on our way up from the beach at Stroupe Beck Farm.
We followed the cliff a bit further then, when another ravine blocked the way, we turned inland and climbed uphill for quite a while, past the waste tips of the old Ravenscar Alum Works, on a pretty path surrounded by gorse and broom. We've been to Ravenscar before and remembered where we parked (up at the top, near the National Trust shop), but we couldn't quite work out where it was that we walked on that occasion (which we remember as a walk through the Alum Works, with explanatory boards). We went past the Raven Hall Hotel and then made our way back to the cliffs past road verges for 'the town that never was' (there were ambitious plans to build a seaside resort at Ravenscar in the 1890s, but it got no further than the hotel and a row of houses near the station).
We passed the wartime radar station and soon afterwards, at Beast Cliff, the cliff became covered in gorse and scrub woodland. There were also more people about, including two parties of walkers (I discovered shortly before writing this that there is a Holiday Fellowship guesthouse in Whitby and they do a lot of walks in this area, including along the Cleveland Way). Scarborough Castle, Filey Brigg and Flamborough Head were visible in the distance.
We descended the very steep steps to Hayburn Wyke and took the very short detour down to the beach. Unfortunately there was a group of about 18 walkers sitting where Helen and I have sat before (above the waterfall) so we had our lunch on the beach itself, further out than another group of 4 walkers. Eventually all the others left and we had the place to ourselves - lovely!
The climb out of Hayburn Wyke was not as bad as I'd feared it would be and it was very pretty, passing through trees. We followed the reverse of a route we've been on twice before (on a circular walk from Cloughton Wyke to Hayburn Wyke then back along the former railway line). The cliimbs at Boggle Hole, Stroupe Beck and Hayburn Wyke are all less severe than Sampson implies, but south of Hayburn Wyke he underestimates the descents and ascents - there are several of these, not just the climb at Hundale Point that Sampson warns you of. But it was lovely coastal walking. At Cook Ness (the place I visited some years ago with collleagues from work, looking for dinosaur footprints) the four walkers who we'd first encountered at Hayburn Wyke, and who we had been walking close to for several miles, went in a different direction.
The approach to Scarborough took us past the sewage works (which smelt like a sewage works but looked rather grander) and Scalby Lodge to Scalby Mills, where Tom and Helen had stayed at the Youth Hostel. We climbed over Scalby Ness, descended to Scalby Beck and crossed the beck by a footbridge. We then followed North Bay Promenade past the Sea Life Centre towards Scarborough town centre, turning right (away from the coast) at the roundabout at the end of North Bay Promenade (by a new development) then right again into Northstead Manor Drive. The Manor Heath Hotel was easy to find and both Ros and Steve Hart greeted us - but our luggage hadn't arrived yet. It was 4.30pm and Sherpa Van undertake to deliver the luggage by 5pm - fortunately it arrived about 4.40pm. We opted for a family room (Room 15) on the side of the house in preference to a smaller room with a better view.
We went out to explore Scarborough and to find something to eat. We climbed up to the castle then descended to the harbour. There were lots of fish and chip shops but we couldn't find much else. Then we climbed back up the hill to the town centre and round the back of the Grand Hotel we eventually stumbled across Da Claudio, 'The Italian Restaurant with a difference'. It was! We had a special 2 course meal with a glass of wine for £13 and it was superb - undoubtedly the best meal of the walk so far. A very Italian and slightly crazy waiter and a family celebrating a girl's 21st birthday added to the atmosphere. We walked back to the hotel round the edge of the headland (the reverse of tomorrow's route), watching a lifeboat out on an exercise and a school group playing on the beach, and taking photographs of the sun setting in the direction we came from today and shining on the castle and the elegant terraces overlooking North Bay.
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