As I said in my posting entitled ‘Mid-summer Madness’ I went up to the North Yorkshire Moors on Friday 27th July and returned on Thursday 2nd August.
I went via the M11, A14, the A1 (The Great North Road), A168 and the A19 and the drive up was moderately awful. The traffic from near the end of the M11 until the junction with the western leg of the A14 was very dense which slowed everything down. Then, once on the A1, it seemed that there was a two and a half mile traffic queue at every roundabout on the A1 and there are 4 or five on that stretch. After I eventually turned off on to the A168/A19 I though that my troubles were over but, no, roadworks on the A19 caused yet another queue.
The journey took 7 hours instead of 5 or less - not a good start.
I did eventually arrive at Baysdale Abbey where I was staying and before you get excited let me explain that in spite of its name it is not an abbey. There was once an abbey there but it has long gone.
Baysdale Abbey is the long building that looks a bit like a military barracks, rather plain outside but comfortable enough inside and sleeps 17. The setting though is very nice. One has to drive up a single track road that winds up to the top of the moors and back down again into Baysdale. That road is the only entrance and exit.
There weren’t actually 17 of us but only 14 and that was quite enough. There was a small beck (stream) running past and fish could be seen in the clear water. Footpaths radiated out from Baysdale and up about 600 feet onto the moors above.
My first trip out was the next day, Saturday, to Robin Hood’s Bay about 6 miles south along the coast from Whitby. We didn’t go straight to Robin Hood’s Bay but headed to Boggle Hole where we intended to park and then walk along the cliff top to Robin Hood’s Bay.
Robin Hood’s Bay is the name for both the bay itself and also the little village near the top of the bay. The snag with this walk is that the car park at Boggle Hole is level with the top of the cliffs and one has then to walk down the lane to sea level and then climb steeply back to the top of the cliffs again. At the Robin Hood’s Bay end one has to go back down to sea level again. Ah well it’s good exercise!
This view is from the top of the village, yes that’s another climb, looking back towards Boggle Hole with Ravenscar on the headland in the distance.
The village has some really picturesque cobbled narrow back lanes which vehicles could not possibly access.
The following day, Sunday, we all went for a round-trip walk onto the moors with quite a lot of stopping and looking. It was only 4 miles, but through dramatic moorland scenery, and we arrived back in time for a late lunch.
On Monday we all went to Whitby which is about 10 miles along the coast from Staithes. Whitby is arranged around the mouth of the River Esk so not only does it have river scenes but also coastal scenes.
Tuesday I went with my younger brother to Staithes on the coast to the east. My first visit to Staithes was about 50 years ago when one could drive down the steep, cobbled village street and park by the roadside. There were also a few elderly women still wearing traditional local dress. I re-visited about 6 years later and not much had changed. Tourism in Staithes was unheard of at that time.
Things have changed a bit since then but the village is just as quaint and charming although the traditional dress is no longer to be seen. The only people permitted to drive down into the village are people who need access such as residents, delivery vehicles, etcetera and there is a large car park at the top of the hill where visitors must park.
On Wednesday we all went back to Robin Hood’s bay via Boggle Hole because some of the group missed the first trip and the following day I returned home.
The drive back was not as bad as the drive up but there was one seven and a half mile queue at one point which delayed me by about 45 minutes.
New pages of the places I visited together with photographs will appear on the web site in due course.
