England Coast path part 66 Scarborough North to Scarborough South

 Monday 20th January 2025

Miles 2.26 Miles

Elevation Gain 19 feet

Total days walking 76 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1629.71 (including the swcp)

A bonus day today, it was not planned to walk to Scarborough we had intended to stop at Robinhood bay so having arrived in Scarborough we decided to walk the promenade before getting the train back home. 

A steep walk back down onto the promenade to the Freddy Gilroy sculpture & we start following the promenade round the old town taking in the busy fishing harbour finishing  our walk at the Victorian tramway which takes passengers up the hill into town, unfortunately its closed for maintenance so we walk up to the town. A busy town with plenty of shops but a walk into the Brunswick pavilion shopping centre tells a different story, there is no one in there & only a couple of shops without the shutters down & empty. Perhaps greedy landlords over pricing? We leave   & find a nice bakery for a coffee & cake before getting to the station for our train down to London. 

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England Coast path part 65 Whitby to Scarborough

  Sunday 19th January 2025

Miles 20.89 Miles

Elevation Gain 2525 feet

Total days walking 75 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1627.45 (including the swcp)

The days planned walk was from Whitby to Robinhood bay & to catch the bus into Scarborough.

Read on to see what happened!

A very good night in our private room with  bunk beds, we head down to the communal kitchen for breakfast quite expecting to find it busy but we are the only people using it, we prepare our breakfast & eat in solitude another lady comes to use the kitchen  the one & only, Hostels are not what they used to be!

Bidding the lady a fair well we head to our room & get ready for the day, from the room window Lesley spots another Owl hunting in the long grass.

Not as bright today & its cold with a wind chill of -5 so well wrapped up we start out along the cliff top path, it's easy walking & we soon arrive at Robinhood bay at 10.30 the bus is not until 1pm so a brief discussion we decide to carry on to Scarborough a good 16 miles ahead of us & daylight only until 16.30 the steep climb up out of Robinhood bay via steps is long but we are soon on the cliff top path which is nice to walk along, soon we are dropping down into Boggle hole down steep steps then up steep steps out of Boggle hole along the cliff top onto Ravenscar more steps down & up skirting along the edge of the cliffs a gentle climb up through the woods we keep on going past Ravenscar WW2 Radar station. Daylight time is on our minds as walking on the cliffs in the dark would not be sensible!

Past the long Nab Bird Observatory onwards towards Scarborough across more cliff tops past ploughed fields & streams, soon Scarborough is in sight but the light is fading so we push on at a fair pace, Lesley's foot is coping well eased with pain killers. Soon we are dropping down past The Old Scalby Mill across the Sea cut (Scalby Beck) & onto the promenade lit by strings of bulbs between the lamp posts. Hotel now insight we stop at the Freddy Gilroy sculpture.

off to the hotel for a well earned rest.

Photos, Not many as we were speeding along!

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England Coast path part 64 Staiths to Whitby

  Saturday 18th January 2025

Miles13.74 Miles

Elevation Gain 1394 feet

Total days walking 74 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1606.56 (including the swcp)

Another comfortable nights sleep at the Royal George public house with a good full English breakfast to round off our stay we pay the bill & get ourselves ready for another day of walking,

Yet again we are blessed with clear blue skies, starting our walk involves a steep climb out of the valley of the small village of Staithes up to the cliff top path, not so frozen today so softer under foot but slowly we make our way following the edge of the cliff for several miles with Staithes now out of sight we pass Port Mulgrave, looking down on a small array of what we thought were fishing huts were actually miners huts, We found this out from a local man who was walking his dog.

On we go, coming to Runswick beach where in the museum we had seen photos of the old railway, now dropping down to sea level we walk along the beach then turning off to follow a stream, you have to actually walk in the stream for a short distance then turn off over a small wooden bridge following the path up some steps back onto the top of the cliffs. Its here that we see our first lambs of the year out in the sun. A while later we are faced with a very steep set of slippery steps down into the valley. Down & down we go, once in the valley its a lovely cinder path to Sandsend, Here we cross the East Row Beck then a short way on have a break tea & cake in a cafe. 

Re-energised we are back on our way pavement plodding which is tiring on the feet, past Whitby golf course finally coming into Whitby where we look around a few shops & pick up some supplies for our night in the YHA Whitby for the night, Over the bridge we make our way up the 199 steps towards Whitby Abbey & the Hostel. 

Checked in & photo Id'd we drop our bags in the room we go & look at the Abbey, with the sun dropping we are able to take some reasonable sunset pictures of the Abbey, we then go back down to Whitby town to the whale bone arch, The temperature has dropped considerably but the town was still busy with tourists, we treat ourselves to some chips before heading back up to the hostel for the night.

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England Coast path part 63 Marske By The Sea to Staiths

 Friday 17th January 2025

Miles11.63 Miles

Elevation Gain 1143 feet

Total days walking 73 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1592.82 (including the swcp)

Another cold dry morning with a headwind cold in our faces but with the sun  peeking out from behind the clouds, easy walking along the prom passing a line of tractors in hibernation covered by thick blue tarpaulins.

Along the coast we come into Saltburn, past the pier & the lift to the town, a funicular railway. Continuing along the path it rises up onto the cliff tops past Huntcliff Roman signal station with its iron sculpture then we drop down onto Skinninggrove beach where we stop by the REPUS boat sculpture for a snack & coffee from our flask.

A poem on the back of a bench reads:- 

North of the pole star south of the cross

Across every ocean until we are lost

East of the unknown west of the wind

until we discover where the journey begins

Richard Baker 1949-2016

Leaving the bay we pass an old rusty bulldozer over a bridge then following the path up & back onto the cliff top up to Hummersea, its here we come to our first gate of this trip & like busses there are two in very close proximity to each other!

Coming to Bolby its here we discover the facts about the mine laid out on a commemorative bench (Bait table) fifty years of the mine,  for the last 3 years the only mine in the world producing the unique multi-nutrient polyhalite previously production of potash was done here. The vast tunnels are 1100 meters deep & up to four miles out under the North sea. An interesting read can be found at https://www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/boulby-potash-mine/

Now on our decent into Staiths the road has collapsed into the sea & the path moved back from the edge, Amazingly we see a barn owl sitting on the fence post before gracefully flying off circling around before dropping down & out of sight.

Coming to the end of our days walking we go past the pub we are staying at & go into the cod & lobster where a friend of Lesley's sister works. 

After a good lunch we walk up to the museum where a very informative man engages us & tells us about how the museum was in fact a private collection & when the collector died the family wanted the inheritance money so put everything up for sale, A community fundraising managed to save the items from being sold off & the collection separated. 

The exhibits consisted of some Laura Knight paintings, & an absolute ton of local photography showing old now non existent  mining railways & bridges.

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