Robin Hoods Bay
A steep old fishing village on a wide North Yorkshire bay, with a smuggling past and rock scars at low tide
The cottages stand in a steep jumble of red roofs and narrow alleys above the shore, packed so tight that cars stay at the top and you walk the last stretch down to the slipway. The village made its living from fishing and, for a good long while, from smuggling contraband up through the huddle of houses. At low tide the sea draws back off a broad wave-cut platform of rocky scars, good for rockpooling and for turning up the odd fossil, as this is part of the same fossil-rich Yorkshire coast that runs up to Whitby. Keep half an eye on the tide before you head far out onto the rocks, as it comes back in quickly across flat ground.
Two long walks meet the sea here. The Cleveland Way runs along the cliffs above the bay, and the Coast to Coast finishes right here, so you may well share the pub with walkers dipping their boots after a fortnight from the Irish Sea. A mile or so south along the shore, Boggle Hole is a lovely little cove reached at low tide or by the clifftop path, and the moorland of the North York Moors sits behind it all if you want to swap the coast for heather.
