Sunday 8th November 2026
Today’s walk was like 19th Century Workers’ Housing – “One up, One down” – there was very little in between – we either seemed to be going up or we were going down. Not an abundance of idyllic flat cliff top walking in between, but still absolutely spectacular views and wonderful seaside villages along the way.
We had driven to Whitby nice and early to make sure we got the walk completed in daylight, its getting dark so early these days. We parked up by the harbour and got a good glimpse of this part of town – certainly not short of fish and chip restaurants. The coastal path signs led us up the steep hill out of town, passing fabulous shops. Another place I am determined to come back to when I have more time. Then it was ‘many’ steps up to the ruins of Whitby Abbey, a dramatic skeleton of Gothic architecture, one of England’s most iconic historic landmarks. We were up at the top of East Cliff, all ready for the off.
Then, as I said, we just seemed to get one climb done and we’d face a downhill, which meant another uphill … and so the pattern was set for the day. There were a lot more walkers on the path today, being a Sunday – so lots of hellos. We did stop and look out to sea at 11.00am, and held a minute’s silence in honour of our fallen soldiers. We were proudly sporting our new crocheted poppies which we’d bought in Skinningrove a couple of days earlier – paying our respects.
After 7 miles of walking we were heading DOWN into Robin Hood’s Bay – we were very excited as we had heard so much about this place over the years … and we certainly weren’t disappointed – absolutely picture perfect. We stopped for our lunch here and, whereas this is generally a lonely activity for us, today we had the company of swarms of tourists, even in November! From our lunch spot we had to walk even further DOWN to pick up the coastal path but we got a splendid view of what Robin Hood’s Bay has to offer … we’ll be back some day.
And UP we went in the hope that the next 3.5 miles to Ravenscar might be ‘less undulating.’ Steep but beautiful new steps were provided for the walk out of Robin Hood’s Bay and once at the top I thought I’d survived the day. But very shortly afterwards at Boggle Hole there was a long descent and an equally long ascent. Oh joy.
It was then all about persevering with these ups and downs to get to Ravenscar, where our lovely friend Lynda was meeting us in order to drive us back to our car in Whitby – Sunday buses just hadn’t worked out. Even though we could see a huge hill in front of us, we assumed that we’d be walking a downhill slope into the village and that the hill would be part of tomorrow’s walk. WRONG! And what a true test of friendship – Lynda walked about a mile down from the village to meet us on the path, even though she’s recently had a knee replacement, and even though she knew the walk back up wasn’t the easiest. It was lovely for the three of us to do it together – a new person and some new chat really helped. 11 more miles in the bag and one more day tomorrow to finish this stretch of coastline.
Saturday 7th November 2026
A day off walking at parkrun and to see Lynda and Paul, who drove from their home in Kirkbymoorside, to meet us for breakfast and a walk in Saltburn.
