Category: Yorkshire Coast
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Deep Grove Quarry: Smoke, Shale, and Sulphur
High on the North Yorkshire coast, Deep Grove quarry tells the story of an industry that once transformed the landscape—and filled the air with choking fumes. Between 1720 and 1860, quarrymen here carved out the earth by hand, using nothing more than picks and shovels, to extract alum shale. From this shale, alum was produced,…
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Smoke over Whitby — The Sandsend Bogey
The coast lies quiet beneath a sky heavy with cloud. Small waves slide up the beach with the ebbing tide. It is early yet; the crowds have not arrived. But beyond the headland the scene darkens. A wall of orange-stained smoke rises from the moor, its glow outlining Whitby and the Abbey. The fire on…
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The Black Gold of Far Jetticks
A sheer cliff edge north of Robin Hood’s Bay gives a sweeping view of the Yorkshire Coast, where rock and industry meet. This coastline is now known more for its beauty than for what has been pulled from beneath it: ironstone, alum shale, jet, coal, sandstone, cementstone. Today, the prize is potash and polyhalite, mined…
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Hunt Cliff — Victorian Engineering Meets Geological Indifference
It is endlessly surprising—though it really should not be—how absurdly fragile this stretch of the old Cleveland Railway remains, teetering along the edge of Hunt Cliff as though daring gravity to intervene. Originally built between 1865 and 1867, its grand purpose was to move ironstone from Loftus to the blast furnaces east of Middlesbrough. Rather…
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High Lingrow: From Wartime Deception to Agricultural Use
At Port Mulgrave today, where the weather could not make up its mind, shifting between sunshine and snow flurries. Lingrow Cliffs is just that little headland across the bay, not really anything special, especially at low tide. But near its highest point—named, with great imagination, High Lingrow—there was once a Second World War bombing decoy…
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Port Mulgrave: A Harbour of Erosion and Memory
The last time I ventured down Rosedale Cliff to Port Mulgrave was sometime before the world discovered a new way to grind to a halt — the dreaded COVID. Shortly afterwards, a landslip completely wiped out the path. Today, visiting the beach was not on the itinerary, but fate – in the form of National…
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Tales of Runswick Bay: Treasure, Tragedy, and a Hobgoblin
Ah, Runswick Bay, a charming spot on the Yorkshire coast. A sweeping sandy beach curves dramatically towards the village, which clings precariously to the hillside like it is not quite sure why it‘s still there. Originally, the village was a little further, perched towards the rocky headland. That was until 1664, when a ground-slip sent…
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Rosedale Wyke to Ruin: The Decline of Port Mulgrave
Every time I visit Port Mulgrave, I am struck by how little it changes—save, of course, for the gradual but ceaseless gnawing of the harbour by the North Sea. Today, I didn’t manage to descend to the beach, not that I missed much, for from Rosedale Cliffs I could see quite plainly that the old…
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Landslides and Lost Steps
The coast offered a respite from the mist that, I understand, shrouded the moors today. This is Port Mulgrave, once a bustling harbour east of Staithes, where ironstone was shipped to the foundries of Tyneside. The descent from the cliff top at Port Mulgrave to the harbour below is no easy task. The path, worn…
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Runswick Bay’s Ironworks Beneath the Cliff
Today I was at a National Trust property near Runswick Bay, a hidden gem previously unknown to me. Spanning a 5-hectare meadow, this land is a tapestry of ragwort, thistles, docks, and the occasional blackthorn and willow saplings, all requiring occasional management. The property also boasts 4.5 hectares of precipitous, overgrown cliff and approximately 225…