Robin Hood's Bay

Gill and Paul arrived in Whitby on Tuesday afternoon. We went to meet them after work and had dinner in Trenchers, the number one rated fish 🐟 and chip 🍟 restaurant in town. It was very good!

Yesterday, we walked up to ours, had lunch in the Hare and Hounds, and then spent the afternoon and evening on site. It was lovely to have a proper catch-up 😀.

Today, they caught the bus 🚌 up from town to Hawsker. We met them there to walk🚶‍♂️along the Cinder Path to Robin Hood's Bay. This time, unlike last week, we went down into the village.

The village of Robin Hood's Bay, known locally as Bay or Baytown, is six miles south of Whitby. It is very popular with walkers as it is on the Cleveland Way. It is also the end point of Wainwright's Coast to Coast route.

Bay is built into a steep cliff. It is very picturesque with a maze of tiny streets. Many of the village houses were built between 1650 and 1750. It has a history of smuggling, and there is reputed to be a network of subterranean passages linking the houses 🏘. Tea, gin, rum, brandy, and tobacco were among the contraband smuggled into Yorkshire through Robin Hood's Bay from the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and France 🇫🇷 to avoid the duty.

Law-abiding citizens of Bay mainly made a living from fishing 🎣. The industry reached its peak in the mid-19th century. Fishermen used a small rowing boat known as a coble for line fishing in winter and a larger boat for herring fishing. When the catch was landed, it was loaded into panniers, and men and women walked or rode over moorland tracks to Pickering or York to sell it. It was an extremely harsh life.

The fishing industry began to decline in the early 20th century. Today, most of the village's income comes from tourists and fossil hunters. The foreshore rocks 🪨 on the northern side of the bay are a well-known location for finding ammonites, especially after winter storms.Read more