Yesterday I walked this stunning walk along the cliff top of the Yorkshire coast. These are my pictures taken on a sunny and cloudy day.
My late father-in-law, Bill Bourne, loved walking and he did this same walk as part of a 14-day walk from Spurn Point to Redcar, some 130 miles or more.
He wrote about his walk and this is how he described his day on the Filey to Scarborough section, which he walked in the reverse direction to me.
“I arrived at the start point on the cliff top above Filey Brigg in brilliant sunshine with a lovely blue sky. There was a keen north-west wind which meant I should be walking into a head wind today but I didn’t mind this because it was so clear. The first 3 miles are a gradual uphill all the way to Gristhorpe cliff and for most of that 3 miles there is a wonderful view up the coast to Scarborough’s south bay and castle and beyond to Ravenscar.
With the sun shining directly on to it, every detail could be picked out so clearly. There is also a fine view backwards over Filey Bay to Bempton cliffs and Flamborough Head but today, facing south, the sun was so dazzling. With the sun behind the headland everything was in shadow and the white cliffs appeared dark grey. You could see the skyline against the light blue sky but you could not tell where sea finished and cliffs started.
For the next 2 miles there are 3 or 4 huge caravan sites. Due to falls of cliff one section of the path on the way up to Lebberston cliff is dangerously close to the edge. The path now drops down to Cayton Bay, a popular place in summer, but quite deserted today, and then up through the woods and over Knipe Point. Two more miles brings us to the outskirts of Scarborough – another fine view of Scarborough’s south bay and castle from here.
We pass the site of the Holbeck Hall Hotel, a first class country house style hotel which was completely destroyed by a landslide when a large area of cliff slipped down into the sea in the middle of the night. I have it on very good authority from someone who was present at the time, that when the alarm was raised, one or two guests were not in their own bedrooms! Fortunately there was no loss of life, but everyone had to get out fast in their night attire.” [Bill Bourne]
The following images I took during my walk. Bill would have loved them and would have been able to immediately identify their location.
things change 