Flamborough Head
Flamborough Head is a great chalk promontory projecting into the North Sea from the East Yorkshire coast, its brilliant white cliffs, sea stacks and wave-cut arches formed from the same Cretaceous chalk that underlies the White Cliffs of Dover and visible for miles offshore. The headland is one of the most important geological and wildlife sites on the Yorkshire coast, its combination of chalk cliff habitats, rich offshore fishing grounds and strategic position as a first landfall for migrating birds making it a site of exceptional natural interest across every season.
The seabird colonies on the Flamborough cliffs are among the most significant on the east coast of England. Tens of thousands of kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and puffins breed on the ledges and sea cave roofs during the spring and summer season, their noise and movement creating a spectacle of wildlife abundance that is one of the finest available on the Yorkshire coast. The clifftop path north of Flamborough village toward Thornwick and North Landing provides the best access to the cliff-nesting birds, with viewpoints overlooking densely occupied ledges at close range throughout the breeding season.
The lighthouse at the tip of the headland has guided vessels clear of the chalk stacks and submerged reefs since 1806, its position marking one of the most hazardous sections of the Yorkshire coast. The Battle of Flamborough Head in September 1779, in which the American naval commander John Paul Jones defeated a British convoy escort in one of the most dramatic single-ship actions of the American Revolutionary War, is commemorated in the area's maritime heritage.
The chalk arch at Thornwick Bay and the sea caves accessible on foot at low tide from North and South Landing provide geological features of considerable interest and the connection with Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve a short walk to the north makes this one of the finest short stretches of coastal walking in Yorkshire.