Robin Hoods Bay to Whitby Circular

Let me take you on yet another adventure. We begin in Robin Hood's Bay, with a 21K Challenge ahead of us, again, as on our last walk, following an all-trails route, but this time in an effort to raise money for charity with the company we work for. There is a very small strip of road before you head onto the trail, when you first enter the trail you are greeted with a decision of path, if you take the left, you head right down the cinder track to whitby, but if you take the left and go up the small ramp there, you immediately head out on to the cliff tops and it really is just beatiful! It's a very easy walk to follow, you simply have to walk along the edge of the coast, no chance of getting lost!

It's very similar all the way along, beautiful coastal scenes and lots of dips and rises. There are quite a few steps along the way. We made jokes at each dip to call out to the others "STEPS", it was an interesting change of pace doing a walk with a large group, I personally much preferred when we broke off into small groups. Everyone along the coast we passed was incredibly friendly, lots of "Goodmornings" and "Hellos", and happy dogs enjoying the outdoors. The terrain itself was relatively even as well. When we went, it was dry conditions, so there weren't any chances of slips, trips and falls.

I really enjoyed the areas where we dipped into the terrain. It was a little uneven here going up and down the steps, but at the bottom of each dip, you found a little bridge across a small stream leading to the ocean. It was very tranquil, and I paused often to take pictures of the trickling water. What I will warn against, which some people might find a little daunting, are the little patches of landslide along the path. It isn't the actual path itself wearing away, dont fret! But it does get quite close to the path edge in some places; it is to be expected when walking along the coast, but if something like that unnerves you, I'd definitely recommend taking a wide berth. This is my first coastal walk and what I found was that I was so content walking along the side of the coast, listening to the crashing waves of the ocean below, the squawk of distant seagulls, it was almost ethereal. The peace felt was unmatched.

As you get closer to Whitby, you go by Saltwick Bay, part of the route we took goes through a caravan park, which does feel like you are going the wrong way a little bit, but you are going in the right direction, dont worry! Through the centre of the caravan park, there is an on-site bar, which is a good spot to get some refreshments and use the campsite toilets. They are recently renovated, so a very kind member of the site allowed us access to replenish ourselves. At this point in the route, you are about halfway through! 10K left to go! Coming out on the other side of the site, be sure to take the path back onto the cliff top to continue on the way to Whitby.

Hello WHITBY!

I am a huge fan of Whitby. I spent a lot of childhood holidays here with my grandparents, eating fish and chips and ice cream by the harbour, walking up the 99 steps to the Abbey, pure bliss. I was hit with a huge wave of nostalgia as we headed closer to the Abbey, coming up to Whitby from the top. You can always pause the walk here and explore the town! The route takes you down the 99 steps and through the centre, which is the perfect time to pause and treat yourself to some fish and chips or an ice cream or both! Whitby is one of those coastal towns that is absolutely steeped in a rich and interesting history, being widely known as the birthplace of Bram Stoker's Dracula. I'm so intensely intrigued by this town! We went the weekend before the famous Goth festival filled the streets of this coastal gem, but we still found many individuals in costume and celebration. I would have happily stayed here for hours!

Getting back on the cinder Track

After spending about 40 minutes in Whitby (Such a shame we had a tight time frame to get back to the coach at Robin Hood's Bay), the map was back on, and we navigated our way through the centre to find the cinder track. I will say very quickly here, to save some confusion if you come across this post, when you approach the bridge labelled cinder track, "Where will it take you?" dont go underneath! To get back onto the cinder track, there are some steps leading up on the left-hand side to get you onto the track. If you follow the wrong route, you end up at the bottom of the viaduct later on rather than walking along the top of it! From this point onwards, again, you may as well put the maps away, it's a straight line down the cinder track back to Robin Hood's Bay, the track itself to start is canoped in lovely greenery but opens up again when you get to the viaduct, I was hoping personally, for a better view over the viaduct but the weather was unfortunately not in our favour and the day had turned dull. The viaduct is a very long stretch of bridge, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a fear of bridges, as we found on our journey, and a friend had to run the whole way across! Not an easy feat after already doing lots of incline and 13K!

The last part of the walk was simply following the track all the way from Whitby back to Robin Hood's Bay. I'm glad we followed the route this way around, as I feel the first half of the walk was much harder. This gave us the opportunity to relax into a nice stroll. You pass different wildlife and animals, a pop-up book shop and store and other random niceties along the way. It was peaceful and the end was in sight! 34,000 Steps, many, many MANY active zone minutes later and 21K completed, we finally got to sit down with a nice cold drink that was well deserved! I'd love to do this walk again but make a weekend out of it and spend a bit longer in Whitby! Maybe I'll return for the next Goth weekend, who knows?

I still think about that coastal walk; it's easy to imagine the noise of the waves cresting against the rocks when things feel a bit tough, and I certainly can't wait for the next one!