Jo’s Monday walk : Whitby cliff tops

St. Mary's Church, suspended on the cliff top

St. Mary’s Church and Whitby Abbey, suspended on the cliff top

Now, I know what you’re thinking!  ‘This lady is obsessed with cliff tops and water’.  And you wouldn’t be very far wrong.  After the cliffs at Sagres in the Algarve, and last week’s Seaham walk, it’s becoming a recurring theme.  I do try to vary my walks for you, but I can’t help being just a little biased.

This week we’re going down the North Yorkshire coast to Whitby.  Last time I took you there we went window shopping.  It’s a small town that has something for everyone, but my favourite part is unquestionably up on the cliff, looking down.  First we have to get up there.  We’ll tackle the steps pretty soon, to get them out of the way.  Your reward can be fish and chips afterwards. Agreed?

The car park is right next to the marina- a good place to start

The car park is right next to the marina- a good place to start!

I love the eye-catching colours of the boats
Smart as paint!
And today there's a treat! The swing bridge is opening.

And today there’s a treat! The swing bridge is opening.

In all my years, I have rarely seen this sight in the bustling little port.  A crowd gathers to watch the sailboat go by, and as the gates swing shut again, a queue forms to cross over the bridge.  A delightful party of small schoolchildren with cheery blazers were being corralled by their teachers. I’d have loved a shot but they were too fidgety!  Over we go, to be met by a confusion of signs.

There is a confusion of signs! And can you see the bubbles coming out of that box?

I thought these bubbles were with the schoolchildren, but apparently not!

And then it's the steps!

Then it’s the steps!  Only 199 of them

But don't worry! You can stop to admire the view.

But don’t worry! You can keep stopping to admire the view.

It's lovely in either direction

It’s lovely in either direction

Here's an interesting place to live!

Here’s an interesting place to live!  Next to Caedmon’s Trod

And at the top St. Mary's Church is beckoning

And at the top, St. Mary’s Church quietly waits

Whitby has been welcoming visitors for a long time.  The earliest record of a permanent settlement is 656AD, when an abbey was founded on the East Cliff by Oswy, the Christian king of Northumbria.  Viking raiders destroyed the monastery that followed, and for 200 years the site lay desolate, until after the Norman Conquest of 1066.  The area was then granted to William de Percy who, in 1078, donated land upon which was constructed a Benedictine Monastery, St. Mary’s Church and the town and port of Whitby.

The name Whitby comes from Old Norse, meaning ‘White Settlement’.  It was here, in Whitby Abbey, that the earliest recognised English poet, Caedmon, a former cowherd, lived and worked. The town has a strong literary history and famously features in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Set on the River Esk, Whitby has a sheltered harbour, and in the 18th century the port was a thriving centre for shipbuilding, whaling and the transport of locally mined alum and jet.  The jet became very fashionable when Queen Victoria adopted it for her mourning jewellery on the death of Prince Albert.  Whitby jet shops still feature prominently in the cobbled streets today.

The clouds are gathering, so it's time to move on

The clouds are gathering, so it’s time to move on

We pass the entrance to the Abbey ruins

Pass by the entrance to the Abbey ruins

And out on the cliff top, look back at Whitby Abbey

And out on the cliff top, look back at Whitby Abbey and the pier

Ahead of us lies Saltwell Nab

Ahead lies Saltwell Nab

And beyond that, Whitby Holiday Park, balanced precariously on the cliffs

And beyond that, Whitby Holiday Park, balanced precariously on the cliffs

At this point you can turn inland and follow a path back to the coast road, but I wanted to see more.  We are only 1 mile out of Whitby, and 5 miles further down the coast is idyllic Robin Hood’s Bay.  I continue on, along the Cleveland Way.

Whitby is still visible in the distance

Whitby is still visible in the distance

And below the bay glistens

And below, the glistening bay

While colourful Cinnebar moths flutter at the cliff's edge

While colourful red and black Cinnebar moths explore delicious yellow cowslips

Another treat in store next- a former lighthouse and fog-horn station

Another treat awaits – a lighthouse and a fog-horn station!

‘Hornblower Lodge’ is now a holiday cottage, but was formerly a fog-horn station, fondly known as the Whitby Bull.  The original horn was switched off in 1987 but before that it worked in conjunction with Whitby High Light.  The lighthouse is only 13 metres high but is positioned on the cliff top, 73 metres above high water level, with a range of 18 nautical miles.

The lighthouse also has holiday cottages to let, details included in the link.

High light

Whitby High Light

Wouldn't you like to live here?

Wouldn’t you like to live here?  I would!

Or how about 'Hornblower Cottage'?

Or how about ‘Hornblower Cottage’?

A lane heads inland from the cottage, taking you past farmland, and soon you are back on the coastal road.  You can follow this all the way back to Whitby and visit the Abbey, if you like.  It’s well worth a visit, and there is a restaurant on site.  Or you can save the visit for another day and take the footpath to your left, just past the Holiday Park sign.  This will bring you back into Whitby, threading your way down through the houses to end up almost opposite your start point.

Heading back to Whitby

Heading back to Whitby

Down the steps through the houses

Down the steps, and past the houses

Back at your start point, at the harbourside

Till you’re back at our start point, by the harbour

These are the newest lobster pots I ever saw!

These are the newest lobster pots I have ever seen!

Speaking of lobster, I seem to remember we had an agreement?  Whitby is full of fish and chip shops but ‘Hadleys’ is a favourite of mine.  Always busy, I don’t know how the girls stay so cheerful.  You’ll find it on the corner, just over the swing bridge and before the Whitby steps.

No, I haven't forgotten! Believe me, they are really good

A little expensive, but very good

Just one last photo, for Jill, who thinks my skies are always blue

Just one last photo, for Jill, who thinks my skies are always blue!

The downpour drove me inside the excellent Tourist Information Centre, right by the car park, but it didn’t last for long.  Or I could have gone shopping for Whitby jet.

What do you think?

What do you think?

My walk is about 6 miles in total, or the shorter version 4 and a half.  I hope you enjoyed it.  If you don’t drive, Whitby is easily accessible by rail from Middlesbrough.  This link will give you lots more information about the area, to encourage you to visit.

walking logo

I’m so lucky this week!  Meg has agreed to be my tour guide to the Wilanow Palace in Warsaw  :

http://morselsandscraps2.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/a-stroll-through-the-gardens-at-wilanow/

And she doesn’t mind a spot of rain, either  :

http://morselsandscraps2.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/walking-in-the-rain/

Drake introduced me to Svendborg in Denmark.  What a beauty!  :

http://ledrakenoir.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/an-old-port-out-to-the-world/

Please don’t miss Jude’s Logan Botanic Gardens.  You will be bedazzled!  :

http://smallbluegreenflowers.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/garden-portrait-logan-botanic-garden/

Sylvia is running out of time for her beach walks, but don’t be sad!  :

http://anotherday2paradise.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/another-nostalgic-beach-walk-for-jo/

And I got deluged at the falls with Amy- and loved it!  :

http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/jos-monday-walk-multnomah-falls/

Pauline (you know her as Pommepal) has sent me a post all the way from Canberra, down under  :

http://pommepal.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/welcome-to-cool-climate-canberra/

And I thought I’d just update you on Elaine  :

http://elainemcnulty.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/yorkshire-3-peaks-challenge-the-update/

That’s quite a lot of reading for you so you’ll need a cuppa (or two!).  I promise to find you a flat walk for next week.  If you’d like to join me, just click on the logo for details.

170 comments

  1. Nice Monday Walk, Jo, thank you for sharing it. Here I at the point where I’m ready for a second cuppa. Whitby looks like a pretty town to walk around in.
    Thank you too for rescuing me Saturday. I was going to post a “They’re back” six word but I was too busy to do that. Our kids are home now and living in Katy, , Texas (a fast growing Houston suburb) in their new-to-them two-year-old house, 75 miles and 1hr 15-30 min from our home. Karen turned 40 on Saturday and we celebrated with over there in her new home.

    Whitby reminds me a lot of our B&B stay in Barmouth, Wales. We did a walking tour that also ended with fish and chips. Your special looks sooo good. But I ate so many this last time in the U.K. that I am about tired of them, they have to be really good for me now.

    I did see a nice sign on the abandoned ferry landing there, “Kids under one and dogs, Free.” You may see that on a 6WS coming your way soon. I try to keep up with Viv and most times I just lurk there. I also keep up with Joss (Soulbrush–she doesn’t 6WS anymore–http://soulbrush.blogspot.com/ ) on Facebook. We did visit her earlier and I have one of her paintings. You may have to come to Texas, we have a guest room for you.
    ..

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    1. What a lovely thought that is, Jim 🙂 You’re better off without those fish and chips though. They’re not good for your heart.
      Nice to have family nearby and to be able to keep an eye on the grandkids. Take care of yourself 🙂

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  2. great walk Jo and my legs really felt those stairs! I appreciated the fish and chips at the end. 🙂 Great cliff top photos and very happy there was no falling. 🙂

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    1. I’m afraid there would be no way back from tumbling off those cliffs, Sue. 😦
      Subsidence is a problem all along that coast. There’s always a price, isn’t there? But I’d love to stay in that lighthouse! 🙂

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  4. A beautiful walk Jo. How lucky those people are to live so close to such beauty. And those fish & chips? I would definitely have a plate of that fresh fish!

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  5. Decided to take 30 minutes this morning and do something just for me, which means I came here to join you on some of your adventures. And what did I see first thing? Three of my very favorite things. Cliffs, water, and lighthouses. I am thrilled. 😀 Those views from the cliff top out to sea–breathtaking. Thank you so much for sharing these.

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    1. A little bit of ‘me’ time is a wonderful thing, Elizabeth 🙂 I’m so glad you could join me this morning and happy if I’ve brightened your day at all. I’m out walking on a Monday (as you’ve probably gathered 🙂 ) so I don’t get to my replies till mid afternoon or later. Have a good week!

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  6. Lovely walk, Jo…many years since I have been to Whitby (30 at a guess), and have always intended to return. However, I can’t walk as far these days, so it. Was lovely to do the walk with you! 🙂 By the way, if I was to visit, can I get to the abbey by car, so as not to do the (impossible for me now) 199 steps?

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    1. You can indeed drive right up to the Abbey, Sue, and there is disabled parking. The link titled ‘Abbey’ takes you to the English Heritage site. They have done a beautiful restoration job and it is extremely well worth a visit. Give me a shout if you ever do decide to come up. I live about an hour from Whitby. 🙂

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  7. Wonderful walk and wonderful area – very well cptured photos – I really enjoyed this reminder of a absolutly worth visiting place – by the way so I send a link of this post to my old parents back in Denmark – they talk a lot about this beautiful landscape – they followed with great pleasure all the “Heartbeats” on their tv… 😉

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  8. I love it when you take us to Whitby, my favourite Yorkshire town. I thought for a moment you were going to take us all the way to Robin Hood’s Bay – now that would have been a long walk. I did pop over to your link to take a peek at the village. I took my boys to Runswick Bay once and we walked to Staithes – along the beach one way and the cliffs back. It was quite an experience! Perhaps you could repeat it? Or how about the daffodil walk on the moors? Now you are bringing back so many memories I shall have to get my Yorkshire Walks book out and have a stroll down memory lane.

    I have a watery walk for you this week too – not as high up as yours, no way near as many as 199 steps! Perhaps you have done this one too? http://wp.me/pL5Ms-1GR

    Jude xx
    Oh, and your moth looks like one I saw at Rye Harbour – but mine was a 6 spot burnet. They do seem very similar.

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    1. Somewhere in my archives is a cliff top walk for Runswick Bay, Jude. If you type it in ‘Search’, at the top it should come up. I’ll have a look for you later, when I pop over to read yours 🙂
      Michael had seen a feature about that moth in his garden magazine. We’d never spotted it before so maybe he jumped to conclusions. He’s just Googled your spotty burnet and says you could be right 😦 I spent ages trying to capture a good shot. There were a few of them dancing about 🙂 It was a great walk, anyway.

      Thank you very much for your walk again 🙂 I’ll get the cuppa in a bit!

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      1. I think I read that when I first ‘found’ you Jo – no photos though 😦 Maybe you could return and do the walk again for us 😉

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      1. That’s a pretty one, Ann 🙂 Did you see Staithes in my Simonseeks post or the Robin Hood’s Bay one? I can’t remember what’s where any more. It’s another lovely spot though. 🙂

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      1. I really need to come back to Northumberland. That’s another item on my bucket list. So far, I”ve been to Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay only once, in 2001, accompanying students from my then school in Germany. After that, I’ve only passed last year through on my way to Scotland.
        Best regards from southern Texas,
        Pit

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    2. I have some friends staying in a cottage near Bamburgh on the Northumberland coast, Pit, and I’m longing to go up and see them. It’s too long since I was there. 🙂

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  10. Wonderful, Jo ! – you do Whitby proud ! 🙂 I thought for a moment there must be some connection to C.S. Forester’s iconic naval hero, but when I saw the top shot of Hornblower Cottage, I understood all. [grin]
    And those fish & chips had better be BRILLIANT, at those prices. I suggest that’s why the girls are so cheerful: it’s all the moolah rolling in.

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    1. Hi M-R! 🙂 Fish and chips is SO not a cheap meal any more! Even from our local chippie in the town you’d pay about £5 for fish and chips for one. ‘The Magpie’ is the most upmarket one in Whitby and wins all the awards, but if you search down a few back streets you can find a ‘pensioner’s special’. 🙂

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      1. LOL !! – that’s where I’d head, and with justification !
        But really, your photos are marvellous; you certainly make Whitby somewhere to dream of going to.

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  12. An obsession with cliffs and water would have to be one of the healthiest obsessions possible! I’m more than happy to join you in it. However, 199 steps require a ramp and a horse as well as fish and chips, thank you. I know they serve a function: the view is well and truly admired, but my legs and my spirit revolt. I love the way this post has eyes swivelling to take in everything there is to see, thanks to you clear walk-guiding and your lovely photos, this time enhanced by clouds. Narooma, my small sea side town in Australia, also has a history of shipbuilding, although not on the Whitby scale, and a connection with whales, but only watching them as they migrate up and down the coast.

    I’m going to have to start plotting your adventures on a map. I need to know how much ground you cover to find such diversity week after week.

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    1. I am very lucky, Meg, that Whitby is about an hour away, to the south, and the North York Moors are beyond that. Seaham, where I was last week, is about half hour north (by car)
      I often think about showing a map on my walks, but I’m lazy and haven’t got round to it yet.
      The good news is that you can drive right up to the Abbey on the cliff top and it’s a fairly level walk from there 🙂

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  13. Looks wonderful Jo….I love a cliff walk too, as you get the land and the sea rolled into one….and great light 🙂
    I’m with you on the fish and chips, a must after taking in sea air!

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    1. My bum’s just hit the armchair after a morning’s walking at Pinchinthorpe, Robin. It’s on the way to Whitby, but not somewhere you would be likely to stop off 🙂 The feet definitely know they’ve been walking, and it’s warm! 🙂

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      2. I didn’t catch what his link to Skinningrove was, Robin. Did you? It’s a ways from the Isle of Man, but he obviously spent a considerable time there. It looks rather bleak to me, especially in B & W, but that opening photo of his dead friend is a stunner. Hard times!
        On my Robin Hood’s Bay link there are a couple of Skinningrove shots. I always meant to go and see the mining museum. Thanks for the link 🙂

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  15. You really captured the flavour of the location – got a couple of nice shots here last time but with an older camera – I would love to shoot it again with my full frame camera – I could get so much more detail – excellent blog so much to absorb

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      1. We went with them one year and there is a plaque just inside the church door, I think he was big in the church and Whitby….they are away at the moment or I could have found the name….

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  17. Thsi place is well worth a visit.. I have never been to Whitby, several places nearby but never here.. and it looks as though it is well worth a visit…great post the usual top standards.. 😉

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  18. Whitby is of course the home of that famous Mariner Captain James Cook. Wonder what Australia would be like, and who would lay claim to it if Captain Cook hadn’t “found” it…
    Of course it had never really been lost as the Aboriginal people had been here for more than 40000 years.

    Enjoyed the walk with you Jo, but struggled a bit on those steps….

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      1. You definitely wouldn’t want to climb THAT one, Jude 🙂 Even my legs would grumble!
        But I know a very nice forest walk that takes you to Captain Cook’s Monument with nice views, or we can go walking around Great Ayton village and visit his schoolroom. Either of those appeal?

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      2. Yup! Did that one with my boys – went up to the monument, through the forest (in snow) and out to the Topping, I confess I waited on the slope whilst they climbed up to the summit. It was a circular walk from the village. This was pre-digital though and I have very few photos of the walk.

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    2. I did think of going into the full James Cook scenario, Pauline, but the post is on the long side already. The good news is that you can drive up to the Abbey and walk from there. (ssh, don’t tell!) 🙂

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  19. A marina at Whitby? I thought it was a harbour.

    Is the youth hostel still at the top of the cliffs? I stayed there 40 years or so ago, left my Jesus sandals behind but the warden posted them back 🙂

    Never liked cod. If the didn’t have haddock I wd have gone for those smoked fish cakes.

    I always wanted to buy some jet in Whitby. In the end for some strange reason I bought some second hand in Harrogate. Still have it. Very useful for funerals.

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    1. Hi Rough 🙂 Are you mobile again yet?
      The Jesus sandals thing is pretty typical of those days but I don’t think it’s still there. Shame! He’s probably long gone too.
      There is a new marina, within the harbour, by the enormous car park. Very swish boats moored there.
      Hadley’s had the works! I prefer haddock too. Mick had scampi, bless his cotton socks 🙂
      I have a Whitby duck, if that counts?

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      1. No.
        He was a she, although not Lou Reed.
        Haha. Money swish marina in Whitby sounds unreal.
        No cod where I came from. Fish and chips was haddock. If you wanted cod you had to order it specially at the chippy. I never heard anyone do it. I think it was a myth on the order board
        Is it made out of jet?

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  20. Great post Jo – Whitby is one of my favourite places too…and the view from the cliff tops out to sea is so calming and peaceful. Great photos too. Thanks for posting!

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