Robin Hood's Bay

Robin Hood's Bay is a clifftop fishing village on the North Yorkshire coast that tumbles down a steep ravine to a rocky beach in a cascade of red-roofed cottages, narrow alleyways, and secret passages. The village is so steep and densely packed that neighbours could (and smugglers allegedly did) pass contraband from the top to the bottom without ever going outside. The lower village is entirely pedestrian — you park at the top and walk down through progressively narrower streets until you reach the slipway and the beach. At low tide, the rock pools are extraordinary: anemones, crabs, starfish, and fossils embedded in the Jurassic shale. The geology here is significant — the rocks date from the same period as the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Robin Hood's Bay is the eastern terminus of Alfred Wainwright's famous Coast to Coast Walk (192 miles from St Bees in Cumbria), and walkers completing the crossing traditionally throw a pebble carried from the Irish Sea into the North Sea here. The walk from Robin Hood's Bay to Whitby along the Cleveland Way coastal path (about 6 miles) is one of the best short coastal walks in England. The old Bay Hotel at the bottom is the perfect pint stop after either walk.