Yorkshire Walks - My Walking Diary route no 133

Runswick Bay on a gloomy March day
Runswick Bay on a gloomy March day

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Wednesday 29 March 2005
Staithes, Newton Mulgrave,
Runswick Bay circuit - 15km
North York Moors . . . .

Map: OS Explorer OL27 The North York Moors Eastern area at 1:25000
Route Map on 'Landranger' map base from OS Open Space service
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Follow the red arrows to Oakdale Nature Reserve	It was a damp misty morning and forecast to stay like that all day. My neighbour and I are both retired and consequently have very little spare time, so we decided to go ahead with our walk anyway. We drove to the little fishing village of Staithes on the Yorkshire coast north of Whitby. It's an area that has faced hard times for many years. We parked in the car park (map ref. NZ 781185) at the top of the steep slope down to the harbour. From the car park we turned inland up the village street for a bout 200m and turned left in front of the village hall. We continued along this road out of the village for about 500m to map ref. NZ 785184 where the turned right to climb over a stile into a field. We followed the path across the fields to the main coast road at map ref. NZ 784176. We crossed the road and continued along the path on the opposite side above a new looking industrial building that I think is a water treatment works.
After about 250m there is a stile into the woods followed by some steps down the bank.(See photo above as the detail of the path doesn't seem to fit the OS map somehow?)At the bottom of the steps we turned right and the path continues down some more steps to cross the stream and enter the Oakdale nature reserve. We followed the path through the woods to emerge into the fields above the woods at map ref. NZ 783166 (again some careful navigation needed through the woods). We followed the path across the fields to the road near Newton Mulgrave at map ref. NZ 785156. We turned left onto the road and walked through the village for about 450m to map ref. NZ 789154 where we turned right off the road onto a footpath following a farm track across the fields to Ellerby at map ref. NZ 799147. We turned right onto the road and walked into the village. We turned right in front of the pub to the main road at map ref. NZ 800144.	Spraying equipment enjoying benign neglect
Rhode Island red cross hens at Westfield Farm	We crossed the main road and took the footpath opposite to the road near Northfields Farm. We followed the road past the farm to map ref. NZ 807141. Here we planned to turn left off the road onto a footpath across the fields to Westfields Farm. The first field between the road and the stream has been ploughed and sown with a crop that had not yet grown through and the was no sign of the path on the ground. There is a wood to the right of the field and the path runs about 50m to the left of the wood to we took careful aim and set off across the field. At the bottom of the field there is a small ridge or hump about 50m to the left of the wood on the line of the path and the path goes down to the stream to the left of this hump. The crossing is a shallow ford with a wonky stile on the other side.Over the stile the path climbs a steep bank and then follows a farm track upto the farm. The path passes the north side of the farm and at the edge of the farm we turned left at map ref. NZ 813139 onto a track down to a
bridge over the disused coastal railway track (this is now a well walked footpath).We continued along this path down to the beach in Runswick Bay. The final descent is very steep and treacherously slippy in the wet. I ended up on my bum a couple of times and my friend was left hanging by both arms from a branch when both feet headed off down the hill without him! Once on the sands we walked along to the village. In spite of the gloomy weather there were still quite a few people about. We were now on the Cleveland Way route and we followed it all the way back to Staithes. As we climbed the steep hill out of Runwick Bay A woman was bringing two young girls on horseback down the hill. This seemed a very risky thing to do.The hill is very steep (about 1 in 4 or 25% if you've managed to convert) and the iron horse shoes seemed to have no grip. Both horse were nervous - not to mention the two young riders and there was a queue of cars waiting patiently about 30m behind.	Crab pots at Runswick Bay
One driver stupidly decided to overtake the queue and the horses to reach the car park about 200m down the hill. I feared a disaster but amazingly he made it and the horses did not react. By the time we reached Port Mulgrave the mist had closed in still more and we saw none of the lovely cliff top views on the way to Staithes. Despite the weather it was an interesting walk. The route was about 15Km and took us almost 5 hours including a couple of refreshment stops.
Wood anemonies in Oakdale Woods	Dairy cattle in Newton Mulgrave
Blackthorne in flower above Runswick Bay	Primroses on the descent to Runswick Bay
Gorse in full flower above Borrowby Dale	Cliff top view from Port Mulgrave

Fishing boats in the car park at Staithes

More machinery stored until it's needed again
More machinery, spray equipment & trailers, stored until they're needed again

A murky view of Elerby as we approached across the fields