By 'eck, it's grand 'ere

Distance: Five and a half miles.

General Location: Yorkshire Coast.

Start: High Hawsker.

Right of Way: Public and permissive.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL27 North York Moors eastern area.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: August 2006.

Road Route: Three miles south of Whitby on the A171.

Car Parking: Roadside in Hawsker, High Hawsker and particularly in Low Hawsker.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Pub - The Hare and Hounds Inn at High Hawsker.

Tourist & Public Transport Information: Whitby TIC 01723 383636.

Terrain: Cliff top, disused railway line and farmland.

Difficulty: Quite easy.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

Please click the image below to go to the walking route sketch map and detailed directions, or scroll down to a Google Map of the route, the route description, and an image gallery. Plus you can bookmark this page on your favourite social bookmarking site, and comment on the walk. We hope you enjoy the walk. 

Googlemap

Please click on "Map" to see a cartographic map view of the route and "Hybrid" to see the combined map and Satellite. Please use the zoom tools or drag the slider to move in close or to zoom out (or use mousewheel zoom). Use the pan tools to move the map vertically and horizontally or place your mouse over the map and it changes to a hand; click your mouse to "grab" the map to manually scroll the map in any direction. The two hikers icon shows the start of the route and clicking on it will show the route starting direction.

Please note that the outline route is a guide only and on full or near full zoom cannot be guaranteed to follow every twist and turn of the route described.

If you can’t immediately see the walk route on the Google Map, please refresh the screen.

Hawsker is an unremarkable village but is nicely placed for a walk near Whitby that includes a lovely length of the Cleveland Way along the cliffs.

A track leads by the by to the cliffs, a mile past a farm or two till the sight of corn, sea and sky - golden stubble, the sea quite blue and the sky the same with a few clouds. A last few hundred yards by a gully full of willow herb, brambles and hoverflies and we reached the cliffs at Widdy Head.

You don’t want a woozy head for the next few miles; the path can be close or very close to the edge. Strangely there was no wind, not even an updraught or a land and sea breeze, so there was the sound of the gentle high tide washing the rocks 250 feet below.

Soon there was a nice grassy slope with a rock seat or two, a stop for sandwiches and gull watching; there were some large young on the narrow sloping ledges between the layers of fractured sandstone.

Three or four gullies have to be crossed, they provided cool intervals, a few minutes each, thin becks, half-light and a bit of exercise on the steps. Otherwise it’s a wide sea view. A colourful floral band sets off the cliffs that, headland to headland, become more steep and sombre. There is no way down to the waves until Robin Hood’s Bay which was where everybody else, an after-lunch international flurry, were walking.

Inland, pleasant pastureland rises to a near horizon, the National Trust own property around here. Some drystone walls have diminished or have been harvested, though some would have been destined to have toppled into the sea. The sheep were shiny white in their new fleece, swallows zipped up rich fare, and a burr bush with a sea view waited for the next hiker to hitch a ride on.

At Rain Dale springs and seepage make for the curiosity of a delta of cliff-top bog-land. After this, and just before Clock Case Nab and Craze Naze, our way leaves the cliffs for a short sharp climb and connection with the abandoned railway line, the one that shadows the coast hereabouts and makes for so many fine circular walks.

As we reached the line a shepherdess in shades roared up, spun her quad bike round and held up the cycle and walker traffic while her sheep funnelled into pastures new. One can hire bicycles from Trailways near Hawsker, it was interesting to see the variety of wheeled child carrying technology, some of which, judging by the cry volume, were more comfy than others. I fancied the trailer method, but am apparently too big for this.

When planning this walk there had been the usual ‘shall we go clockwise or anticlockwise’ debate. It’s nice to finish the walk with the effortless two miles on the cinders, also, though some of the line is in deep cuttings, open and elevated lengths offer views to Whitby Abbey.

There is but briefly sight of a caravan site, the immobile homes are set cantilevered on a slope but well back from imminent danger of sliding into the sea should the cliff slip. Then the walk is done at a red brick rail bridge.

Image Gallery

Please click on the word "Pictures" to toggle the thumbnails on and off. Hover your mouse over the image to see the forward and back arrows to view the gallery. 

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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