Cleveland Way - Scarborough to Whitby (★★★★★)

This walk was the second of two days of walking, starting at Filey, and walking along the coast northwards to Whitby. Having stayed over in Scarborough, this second day would involve a walk from Scarborough up to Whitby. For the previous day please click the following link : Day 1 - Filey to Scarborough.

Scarborough is underrated as a spot to go walking from. It is very easy to reach from York on the train line, it is very cheap to stay in, and has walks to the north via the Cleveland Way and Tabular Hills Way, and to the south with the Yorkshire Wolds Way and again Cleveland Way. But of all these walks the best is heading from Scarborough to Whitby, via Ravenscar and Robin Hood's Bay, along the coastline - i.e. the walk today.

Having stayed over in Scarborough, I head out very early, and head down the steps from my hotel at St Nicholas Cliff (convenient, but noisy in terms of seagull noise). 

This takes me for a quiet walk along the seafront - with almost no one around - looping round the castle, and then coming round to North Bay. As I head round the castle and to North Bay people are starting to head out for the day.

He wasn't very chatty - I'm not sure he liked me

Heading along the beach, you eventually pass by the Sea Life centre, and then over a footbridge ready to head up to Long Nab, above Scalby Ness.

Heading over the footbridge

Up on the cliffs, it is quiet again, and there is a stretch of cliffs ahead, with a wide grassland, along which it is very easy going walking. 

Not too far ahead, the turn off for the Tabular Hills walk can be found, and then you head on northwards with views of the sea out to the right, views of Scarborough behind, and views out towards the North Yorkshire Moors in the distance to the left.

View towards the Moors from near Cromer Point

Forward view from roughly the same point

From here, the path heads on through this landscape, without too many changes, other than a small diversion round to a car park and back, at Crook Ness.

From here, you head slightly north-easterly to Long Nab, and then back northwest, heading to Hundale Point. Here the path turns inwards, giving better views of the cliffs ahead.

Cloughton Wyke

Here the path cuts inside - and there is a section with a bit more obvious erosion - before you head through a small section of slightly overgrown path, before continuing along the cliffs on the far side.

From here you have good views out to see and along here you can sometimes see dolphins (more on this later) - while someone has told me that they have seen a whale along this stretch of coastline.

Eventually you cut inland, and lose sight of the sea as you head through Hayburn Wyke, which is an attractive bit of forest to walk through (and enough to a novelty on a coastal route to be enjoyed).

Beyond Hayburn Wyke, the path sits between wild meadows on the left, and views out to sea on the right.

Wild meadows on the left and sea on the right (but looking backwards from Petard Point)

This slightly more managed section shows that we are on the approach to Ravenscar, and as you head further towards Ravenscar, a lookout hut and a small radar point dating back to World War II come into view to the left - you can pop over to have a look if you have an interest.

Otherwise, the path pulls into town near the old station, and here there are toilets and a cafe from which food can be purchased if required. For this next small section of the route, the Cinder Trail and Cleveland Way join up for only one of two occasions between Scarborough and Whitby (although they are rarely far apart and you can generally alternate between the two along the way - the second shared section is at Robin Hood's Bay). 

After passing through Ravenscar, you split off from the Cinder Track - which stays on a higher path round to Whitby - and start to drop down quite a large hill towards the coast once again.

Early on in the descent

Further down the hill

Even as I walk more and more coastline, this stretch from Ravenscar to Robin Hood's Bay remains the prettiest stretches of coastline I have come across (UPDATE - it is still number 1),  and on a sunny day the views from the height of Ravenscar, out towards Robin Hood's Bay are incredible. 

If going the other way, then this is a fairly tough old hill, but an option for a great walk is to start at Robin Hood's Bay, go out on the Cinder Trail and then down this route and along the coast back to where you started, with the Cinder Trail having a more gentle change in height, despite a fairly hefty overall climb up to Ravenscar.

There is a decent way to go still on this downwards trail, but the main focus on this section is to simply enjoy the magical views.

A closer view of Ravenscar

In the photo above, the beach on the left is Stoupe Beck Sands, and the little cut in is Boggle Hole, which is the next major destination on the route - and also a Youth Hostel which offers both a cafe and quite a quirky place to stay.

Stoupe Beck Sands

Boggle Hole (the Youth Hostel is behind me here)

From here I had to endure a bit of a diversion inland, onto roads to get around some cliff damage on the next section (UPDATE - this has since been re-routed, with a new set of steps heading onwards ensuring that no more diversion is needed - this may change as this area is subject to erosion under heavy rains).

This is then followed by some slightly crumbly cliffs, before heading round and down into Robin Hood's Bay - which is worth having a bit of a poke around - and here it is a larger town, with lots of pubs etc - and on the climb back, up a local store can be found from additional supplies can be bought.

Down on the seafront

Having a poke about Robin Hood's Bay

Having headed through Robin Hood's Bay, and sourced some additional food and drink at the store, it is time to head right out of Robin Hood's Bay, and then out along the cliffs, with views back over Robin Hood's Bay.

From here you have views out the sea and sometimes the chance to see some dolphins : (sorry about the quality, but this is the best my phone can do when zoomed)

Here you have the best of the cliffs along this stretch, and with the wide grassy paths alongside the cliffs, it is a very slow and pleasant meander along the cliffs without being penned in near the edge of the cliff as can commonly be the case on coastal routes - although with this section being much more popular than the rest of the walk today.

Here you will also start coming across some Coast to Coast hikers, finishing off their walk across from St Bees in the Lake District. That was about 190 miles ago for them, so try and stay on their good side, because I imagine they are quite tired by this point, and probably quite hangry.

Looking across at the cliffs ahead

Looking back at the cliffs behind

From here, there is a long run along this stretch of cliffs, with pretty similar run of landscapes, looking out over the sea (not that any of us are really complaining though at this point).

At Rain Dale, there is a permissive path that heads up to the Cinder Track, which can offer a slightly different route into Whitby (and which I will sometimes use to get a bit more contrast at this point), but for now, we continue along this section for some time, with more fields to the left and more sea to the right.

At Whitestone Point you do get a bit of a break in proceedings, as you pass the lighthouse, and then you head on past the beaches below at Saltwick Bay, with quite a number of holiday homes to the left.

From here, there has been a lot of erosion on the footpath. At the time of passing it was okay, but it was getting to the end of it's period of being walkable (UPDATE - this route is now diverted onto the road due to cliff falls). From here, you cannot divert onto the Cinder Track because that is now approaching Whitby from the southern side, but the easiest route to the road is through the holiday park.

Finally you pass the Abbey and the church on the hill, and descend into a very busy Whitby, where there are plentiful supplies of fish and chips. Here I stop by the fish and chip shop (as has become a bit of a tradition for most visitors to Whitby) and head to eat it under the watchful eye of the local seagulls while I wait for my train home.

A pleasant enough view while I have my dinner

Enjoyment Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

Click on the following link to see the writeup for the next section of the Cleveland Way running from Whitby up to Saltburn.

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 94 and 101 OS Landranger maps - 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.