Up and out early on Sunday for the short 51 minute drive across the North York Moors to try and catch (and photograph) the sunrise at the fishing village of Staithes on the Discover Yorkshire Coast. Staithes is a picture postcard village set at the bottom of cliffs in the very north of North Yorkshire. In more recent times it has become well know for the artists (and their galleries) that base themselves there. If you have children of a certain age, Staithes was where the BBC children’s show “Old Jack’s Boat” was set.
Visitors to the village need to park at the top of the village and make their own way down by foot as the road is narrow and there is not much space if you meet on coming traffic. For our sunrise trip we parked at the Cowbar Car Park, to the north of the main village so that we could easily get to our vantage point.
On this occasion the sunrise was a bit “meh”, but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits. We headed down in to the old village and pottered around in the harbour and explored the rock pools – finding some amazing fossils in the process.
From there we had a breakfast at Sea Drift Confectionery – a small cafe serving great bacon rolls and a cake unique to Staithes called Cobble Cake, an indulgent cake served with cream and made with apples, walnuts and spices. We took one to go and had it when we got home – it was great!
Still with lots to explore we ventured back around the harbour to see the Staithes and Runswick RNLI bring their inshore lifeboat out for a washdown. Alastair can neither confirm or deny whether he bought at Corgi Land Rover in the shop….
Staithes is a great all year round location to visit whether its for photography, fossil hunting or building sand castles on the small beach inside the harbour. If you are around for lunch The Cod and Lobster on the harbour wall is a great place for lunch, but do check ahead as it does get busy.
#yorkshire #supportlocal #visitlocal #staithes #thingstodo #photography #visityorkshire #holidays #holidayinspiration
