Cleveland Way - Filey to Scarborough (★★★☆☆)

Over the years, I have spent a lot of time walking on the North Yorkshire Moors - with much of that happening along the Cleveland Way. This is one of the more underrated trails around the country - offering a full mix of farmland, moorland, in-land cliff views out from Sutton Bank, and then a stretch of coastline from Saltburn down to Filey.

I have explored a bit of the coastline, heading down from Saltburn, but have completely ignored the stretches further down - and so today I am heading out to Filey, for a first day of walking up to Scarborough - where I would stay over, and then walk up to Whitby on the following day.

The first task of the day was to take the early train of the day down to Seamer (a stop just before Scarborough), and here I changed trains, to swap to a train heading south and on to the wonderfully unusual train station at Filey.

From here, the task is to head out to the seafront, and then head up north along the cliffs - where there is a chance for both a diversion out to Filey Brigg, and also to check out the marker for the start/end of both the Cleveland Way and the Yorkshire Wolds Way.

Here I officially join up with the Cleveland Way, and now start heading westwards along the cliffs.

View from the cliffs

Next up, the path heads past the holiday park, and with some erosion of the cliff side, the path has started to get pinched a bit between the holiday park and the cliff edge here. If the cliffs continue to retreat, the path will hopefully get re-routed and some of the holiday homes are starting to get fairly close to the edge at the same time.

It is worth noting that these cliffs do suffer erosion, so while walking on a dry day is normally going to safe, walking after heavy rainfall is perhaps a little more risky.

However - having cleared the holiday park - the walk returns to more open countryside, heading along the coastal trail.

Having cleared the holiday park (the white smudges in the distance)

Round the corner, arriving at Cayton Bay, the landscape levels out somewhat, and you get more of a flatter bowl in the landscape - with a beach opening up below.

You can pop to the beach from here, but you will then have to come back up so you had better be up for the trip down as well as the trip back up, but this isn't a bad spot to stop for a bit - and there are once again toilets marked on the map here (by the car park).

Heading onwards, the path does unfortunately start to move more inland, and so the views for the onward section of the walk are far more limited - more-so as you join a road heading through Osgodby, now some way inland from the line of the coast.

Not too far up this road, you turn right and head down between fields and a row of houses, and then the path takes a left turn, to once again start to head in the direction of the coast line.

Still - there isn't all that much to see here again - with houses sat on your left inland and trees blocking your view out to sea to the right. So it is not until you make your way round a golf course (marked as Wheatcroft on the map), that views of the coast open up again. This time the cliffs are much smaller, and its a less dramatic view out to sea.

After half a mile or so, though, you start to enter the outskirts of Scarborough and along this stretch into the core of Scarborough there are gardens and walks at multiple different levels to enjoy on your way into town.

Looking out from a higher vantage point above the path

Only very slightly above the official route at this point

With Scarborough being the end of the days walking and with no real time constraints, I took my time along this section - and rather than following the low path below (which didn't look the best route), instead enjoyed a bit of exploring up on the higher levels of pathway.

From here, I head into town to get some food - and then head to the hotel to get an early night's sleep. One of the advantages of Scarborough is that it is a very cheap place to stay over, with rooms normally costing around £40 per night and so I'll come back to do further walks from here. 

Today was a good enough day, but really the jewel along this stretch will come in the form of the following day. With a walk from Scarborough round to Whitby.

UPDATE - For an additional walk starting/ending in Filey, see the walk from Malton to Filey along the Yorkshire Wold's Way.

Enjoyment Rating : ⭐⭐⭐ ★ ★ / 5

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 101 OS Landranger map - while there is also a Cleveland Way guidebook or a Yorkshire Coast Path guidebook (Redcar to Humber Estuary) - which include OS mapping (links redirect to Amazon). The route is in general well way-marked.