Robin Hood's Bay

I've been to Sleights a number of times but somehow I had never been taken to the famous Robin Hood's Bay which is only a few miles away.

You park your car in a lot at the top of the cliff and then join the hordes walking down into the village.

Since the Peter Cook of Pete and Dud fame was born in Torquay I presume this is some other Peter Cook. No doubt the local fellow never did anything like this.

Robin Hood's Bay is just south of Whitby, so this is the North Sea out there.

View Larger Map

This village is filled with mysterious lane ways.

Cars do travel up and down but only to drop off or pick up passengers at the bottom. If you are one of the people renting a cottage at the bottom it would be a bit cruel to have to carry your luggage down and up.

Yes, dogs are allowed.

Eventually you get to the bottom and there is the sea.

The tide was going out which made the foreshore much more interesting.

We came back to this pub later for a beer.

The 'Times Square' of the village. It was all go here.

The Queen's Jubilee has been a big event here in England.

This is the official end point for a Coast to Coast walk that starts at the Irish Sea at St Bees and ends here at Robin Hood's Bay. I'm contemplating doing this walk next year as part of my 'try to keep Ray fit' campaign.

Crab or lobster traps.

I bet you didn't know that.

This had to be about 8 inches in diameter.

The tide was now well out and the holiday makers were out on the exposed rocky beach in force.

Seaweed was everywhere. Apparently it is good for gardens.

Some rather good green slime.

The cliffs suffer from erosion and these walls were put in to help curb the problem.

Little kids were everywhere and it seemed that you needed to have a net on a stick to be part of the 'in' crowd.

There is some sand and also some shells.

There are also large boulders helping to prevent erosion.

The icecream van. Marianne was sent a photo of this van earlier in the year with it sitting out here alone on the beach on a miserable day.

Kids stopped work for a while.

Lo and behold, a bikini. England breeds them hardy, I had on two jackets. 

Erosion problems.

It's fascinating wandering along the shore. It would be easy to spend a day out there poking around in the pools. It would be a bit like wandering around on the Great Barrier Reef when it is exposed at low tide.

Some clouds moved in and created shadows. I took these photos with high resolution so some of these beach scenes like this one show a lot more interesting detail when you click on them.

At the right hand side you might see a waterfall.

A stream of water that stopped us from continuing further south.

The bottom layer of the cliff is alum and it was mined here. It was used in dyes.

We sat for a while looking out at the activity on the beach. When I was a kid I would have been out there racing up and down and having a great time.

As we returned to the center of the village, we came across this pole which really had to be the center of everything.

We adjourned to the pub and found a table overlooking the beach. The beer was pretty good but not quite as good as the Black Sheep beer we had enjoyed a few days earlier.

There were plenty of dogs out there. Not all beaches allow dogs but since this beach appears to get fully submerged by the tide, the poo must get washed away.

Although it is quite different, it all reminded me of the beach at Urangan back in Australia with people out on the sand.

I would have to say I can't remember sitting down at a more enjoyable location to have a beer. It was lovely.

There is a museum of these objects which are found on the beach as the cliffs erode.

Having finished our beers, we headed back up the hill.

This used to be the entrance to a pub at one time. The whole place is filled with holiday cottages. I don't think anybody actually lives here the whole year round.

The views are endless. You have to keep snapping away with your camera.

Overlooking where we had sat enjoying our beers.

The top of the walls that stopped erosion.

Not exactly pristine sand.

Looking down the wall. There are signs asking people not to abseil down.

There is a road that boat owners can use to take their small craft down.

I pointed this out to Marianne as the reason she married me. Her reply was less than polite.

So this is one place that is all that it is cracked up to be. Well worth a visit. Perhaps next year I might be putting my feet in the water here at the end of the walk.