Saltburn-by-the-Sea to Runswick Bay
Sunday 15th June 2008
12.5 miles on Cleveland Way
Click here for all our photographs taken today
We woke to a sunny morning and it stayed dry all day. Breakfast at 8.30am was excellent - the best so far. We said goodbye to Tina, who had now finished all that she is walking of the Cleveland Way (for now!), then we left the Victorian Guest House, bought provisions for lunch in a tiny Sainsburys and had another wander around Saltburn. I like this place! We walked to the end of the pier, taking photographs.
We left Saltburn past The Ship Inn then climbed up steeply to the top of the sandstone cliff; there had been a board in Saltburn explaining the geology and Mr Morgan at the Victorian Guest House had warned us to stay away from the edge. It was pleasant walking along the cliff, not disturbed when a railway line appeared to our right; this is now used solely as a mineral line serving the Boulby Potash Mine. We passed the remains of the Huntcliff (iron ore) mine, with the Guibal Fan House (used to ventilate the mine) on the far side of the railway line.
Eventually we came down towards Skinningrove. Helen and Tom hadn't much liked this section of the path, because it was industrial, but we liked Skinningrove and we able to ignore the modern steelworks to our right hand side and the industry of Teesside behind us. For this section at least, and despite the fact that we were walking into the sun which was a bit trying, I think we were walking the Cleveland Way in the right direction. The discovery of ironstone in 1847 transformed Skinningrove from a quiet fishing village into a settlement to accommodate the influx of miners and blast furnace works - complete with pigeon lofts! But cobles (colourfully painted fishing boats) still go out to sea, and there was an attractive wooden sculpture of two fishermen in a coble.
The climb out of Skinningrove was very steep, with steps to start with, and even after the steep initial section we continued to climb. We headed slightly inland, past a farmhouse, and almost exactly at the point at which we re-entered the National Park, we stopped for lunch, overlooking the remains of the Loftus Alum Quarries. We continued to climb until we reached the top of Rock Cliff, the highest cliff on the east coast of England, 666 feet (203 metres) about sea level. We now had good views over the Boulby Alum Quarries and Staithes came into view in front of us.
Boulby Potash Mine (completed in 1973, with the potash used as an agricultural fertiliser) came into view to our right, but the view in front of us, to Staithes and beyond, was stunning. We descended from the high ground to the lower ground closer to the cliff edge, then walked through Boulby, past several coastguards involved in a training event of some sort. We joined Coubar Lane but realised that the road had been re-routed, because some of the old road had disappeared along with the cliff. The Cleveland Way still uses the old road, skirting the rockfall on a path above the fence. We went down the steep road through Cowbar and into Staithes, stopping to photograph the view. We crossed Staithes Beck and turned left for the seafront - and an icecream.
We passed the plaque on the cottage recording Captain Cook's apprenticeship in Staithes and climbed steeply out of the village (though the climb wasn't as steep either as people say that it is or as I remember it from when we walked from Runswick Bay to Staithes and back along the coast, several years ago). There is another climb between Staithes and Post Mulgrave, but again it wasn't as difficult as I remembered. Port Mulgrave is an abandoned miniature harbour, once used to transport iron ore.
More cliff walking, through lush undergrowth, brought us to Runswick Bank Top. We turned right along Hinderwell Lane, just to make sure that we could find The Firs (tonight's B&B), then we took 'The Old Road' (now a path) down to Runswick Bay. It was high tide. We watched the sailing, then climbed back up the path, which twists its way between the houses, admiring the inventiveness of the nesting seagulls. The houses clinging to the hillside look as if they've been there for ever, but in fact the village had to be rebuilt following a landslip in 1682. Mandy Shackleton welcomed us to The Firs, a large but comfortable guest house. We had a very pleasant evening meal at the Runswick Bay Hotel (described on the Sherpa website as 'a warm and comfortable traditional coastal inn with cask ales and homemade Yorkshire pub food') just down the road.