As we have struggled to find any suitable campsites open a bit further up the coast, we have decided to visit the beaches to link up with last year’s adventure, from here. We drove to Boulby, just around the headland from Skinningrove, our most southerly beach last year, but this just turned out to be a cliff top hamlet with no access to the shore (that I could see anyway).

So next on the list was Staithes…

A pretty little jumble of cottages clustered down a steep valley and around the harbour with a fair smattering of cafes, pubs, galleries and shops.

Not the prettiest beach we’ve seen but it had a lovely atmosphere and quite busy today. I bet it’s a lovely place for a holiday and surely buzzing during the summer

After a good mooch around we moved on to Port Mulgrave only to find that access to the beach and abandoned harbour was wiped out by a land slip so we moved on.

To Runswick Bay…

A lovely crescent shaped sandy bay with a few challenging fast flowing streams to cross as we made our way along. The village of Runswick is a pretty hillside village with more than it’s fair share of holiday cottages, a hotel and couple of cafes – a great place to holiday.

Randomly as we were walking along the beach we could here the sounds of a huntsman horn and spotted some hounds scurrying through the woodlands behind the village – I would have thought it too steep for horses and we didn’t see any so perhaps it was just the hounds out for some exercise?

The sun was just setting (it only appeared in time to set!) as we made our last stop at Sandsend, the northerly end of Whitby Bay.

We could happily have spent longer at each place and walked the miles of coastal path along the cliffs in between but the time of year is not on our side so I am happy to add this area to our ever growing list of places to return to!