Cleveland Way (Part 7) - Saltburn to Runswick Bay: 24 July 2010
- Distance
- 12 miles
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Location
- Saltburn … Map of start point
- Leader
- Mark K
After meeting at Runswick Bay and shoe-horning lots of walkers into not very many cars for the journey to Saltburn, we set off down the steep steps to the beach, and with a quick pause outside the ice cream shop for some of our greedier walkers, followed the beach round to the Ship Inn and then took the path that climbed steeply up to the top of the cliffs. As we reached the top, we found a somewhat random circular metal sculpture.
The path then dropped down to the beach at Cattersty Sands, past a disused breakwater to Royston Vasey Skinningrove, which we quickly passed and started the steep climb up the other side of the valley. We passed a field of horses, one of which tried to eat Adrian, and carried on through an increasingly industrial landscape, looking over the alum heaps below us. We reached the outskirts of Staithes, descending down a steep road and over a bridge to the cobbled streets of the old village centre. We all treated ourselves to a delicious ice cream from the village shop, and then said farewell to an impatient Emma who then sprinted the rest of the route so she could get back to York for a celebratory dinner (congratulations on your new job!)
From Staithes, it was another steep climb up Beacon Hill, and then a gentle stroll around the wide bay of Port Mulgrave and round one final headland to get back to Runswick. The drivers whose cars were at Saltburn were dispatched to get them, but a traffic jam meant we were so long that everyone else wondered what had happened to us. But eventually we returned, and set off to Whitby, where we rounded the day off sitting by the harbour, eating fish and chips, and fighting off rabid seagulls.
Photos by Stevie