Runswick Bay Yorkshire
Runswick Bay on the Yorkshire coast between Whitby and Staithes is one of the most photogenic fishing villages in northern England, a cluster of red-roofed cottages cascading down a steep cliff face to a sandy beach of considerable beauty that combines excellent bathing conditions with the visual drama of the cliff setting and the character of a genuine working community that has fished these waters for centuries. The village's inaccessibility by road, which ends at the clifftop with only pedestrian paths descending to the shore, has preserved its character in a way that road access would certainly have compromised. The beach at Runswick Bay is one of the finest on the Yorkshire coast, a south-facing arc of sand sheltered by the great Cleveland headland to the north that provides calmer conditions and warmer water than the more exposed sections of this coast. The geological interest of the cliffs surrounding the bay adds a dimension that rewards curiosity, the Jurassic shales and sandstones of the Cleveland Hills providing fossil collecting opportunities that have made this section of the coast one of the better sites for finding plant fossils, jet and occasional ammonites in the Yorkshire tradition. The village's history includes a complete destruction in 1682 when the cliffs above the settlement failed, sending the entire village into the sea and killing most of the population. The current settlement was rebuilt on a new site at the same bay but the history of that catastrophic cliff failure adds a poignant dimension to the present-day village perched above its beach. The walking north from Runswick Bay to the spectacular village of Staithes, following the Cleveland Way along the cliff top, provides one of the finest sections of coastal walking in Yorkshire.