Cleveland Way, Day 7. Runswick Bay - Robin Hoods Bay

An early start today as we only had to drive the short distance from The excellent Postgate Inn at Egton Bridge.  We were soon on our way, again with beautiful weather in prospect.  We descended steeply down to the bay where the tide was in and then half way along the beach before climbing steeply up onto the cliffs with excellent views back to the village.  We quickly reached Kettleness, once the site of alum mining and production.  The beach is a scamble to get down to but is one of the best beaches, locally, for fossils.  The path skirts the bay and then follows the cliffs again before descending to the old railway line leading to Sandsend through the extensive remains of the Sandsend Alum Quarries.  The line was the route of the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesborough Union Railway line opened in 1883 and closed in 1958.  This stretch is one of my favourite walks and is one that we have done often.
Sandsend has a plethora of eateries and two of our favourites are The Wits End Cafe and the Sandside Cafe, both serving fine crab sandwiches when in season.  From the village we walked along the excellent beach to Whitby with the views of the Abbey perched above the old town getting ever closer.

 Whitby itself proved to be horrendously busy, only to be expected on an August Saturday.  Although we had to struggle through the crowds we still enjoyed views of the harbour, old town and abbey.  This is one of our favourite places to visit, often in winter, but certainly not in August.

 After climbing the 199 steps, dating from 1370, we reached Caedmon's Cross and the magnicent Abbey.  The first monastery was founded in 657 by Oswy the Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria with the founding Abess being Lady Hilda from Hartlepool Abbey.  In 664 at the Synod of Whitby it was decided to adopt the Roman manner of calculating the date of Easter rather than the Celtic tradition.  Caedmon was a lay brother in the abbey during the 7th century.  Legend has it that he was originally ignorant of 'the art of song' but learned to compose one night in the course of a dream, according to the 8th century historian, Bede.  He later became a monk and an inspirational Christian poet.
Once beyond the abbey and on the cliff tops once more we realised that one of the reasons the town was so busy was that there was the annual steam rally in progress.  It looked interesting but we needed to push on as we still had several miles to cover.  On the way we passed the lighthouse which can now be rented out as a holiday cottage which sounds fun.  It also gave me the opportunity to photograph it to add to my portfolio of lighthouses.  The miles went by quickly and Robin Hood's Bay was soon reached to complete another great day's walking.

 Sadly the next day it was time to return home, but as usual we found it difficult to drag ourselves away.  We drove to Danby Moors centre for coffee and cake and then drove over the moors to stop and photograph the two Ralph crosses, Young and Old.  Old Ralph is the senior of the two but Young Ralf is used as the symbol for the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. I wanted photographs with the heather in bloom but this was not so easy this year as the blossom didn't seem as prolific as normal, perhaps because of the dry summer?