Cleveland Way Walk, Fall 2022 – The last leg, from Scarborough to Filey Brig, and a visit to Scarborough Castle

September 23, 2022 – Scarborough to Filey Brig, 15.3 km, plus 2 km to access transport

Waking up in Scarborough, I really did not feel like heading out to finish the last leg of my journey as the nice round number of 100 miles to Scarborough seemed like a good enough achievement! I briefly considered cheating a bit by cutting across town to reduce the walk by a few kilometres, but that idea did not last long. I’d come this far, I may as well do the whole thing properly!

I headed down from my hilltop accommodation to Marine Drive where the road and adjacent pedestrian walkway curved towards and around the base of the large rock outcrop that Scarborough Castle sits upon. Again I had fine weather with wind, sun, and cloud, and within the first kilometre the wish to skip this last leg of my walk had already vanished.

The road curved around to the South Beach area of Scarborough with its marina and its array of shops and amusements for people on holiday.

The tide was out and a walk along the long beautiful beach held more appeal than a walk along the roadway so I descended to the sand.

It was a scenic walk with the morning sun shining brightly on attractive buildings (and attractions) on the shore.

This is Nicholas Gardens and to its left (out of frame) is a funicular that rises to the top of the hill.

Midway along the beach is the Scarborough Spa, a grand Victorian building that hosts a conference centre and seaside performance venue.

From midway along the beach one can see that the defensive walls of Scarborough castle that extend from one end of the hilltop to the other.

As I neared the far end of this gorgeous beach I took a last look back,

and then located the trail in the distance ahead of me which would climb to the top of the hill.

A Cleveland Way signpost let me know that I had 7.5 miles to go before Filey and I felt good and fit and ready for the walk.

This is the very beautiful wide sandy beach at Clayton Bay.

A woman that I met on the trail drew my attention to the concrete structures on the beach that were placed there during the Second World War. She said that it was feared that this beach might be used by the Germans as a landing beach and that “my dad’s army” had stationed soldiers in the boxes to watch the sea night and day. She also told me that on her walk the previous day she had seen a pod of dolphins in this bay – a much more welcome kind of sighting!

This view is taken looking back perhaps a third of the way along the beach (with Scarborough and its castle just visible on the headland beyond).

And this view is from near the very end of the beach. Wow!

Eyes forward now I admired this patch of shrubbery with its growth pattern shaped by the direction of the wind.

The trail stayed high for the entire walk today with just a few small dips and rises and I kept my eyes peeled for a possible sighting of dolphins.

Walking above this next beach I’m sure that I heard the moaning wail of seals but I could not distinguish their shapes from the shapes of the rocks.

All along this section I watched a Kestrel hunt. It hovered in the wind, spying its prey, then folded its wings in a flash like a falcon and dove at speed out of sight below the cliff top. I saw it dive multiple times and I also saw the kestrel severally harassed and chased by a small flock of crows. I have never seen crows fly so fast or so acrobatically!

Later, the trail led onto this long peninsula, with Filey Brig at its very end. I met a couple near here (sporting binoculars) and they told me that the kestrel has a mate nearby. Also, they had seen a large pod of dolphins just an hour earlier near here, not very far off shore.

I found myself slowing down to a crawl (figuratively, not literally!), and stopping often to look out to sea and also over to the fields and hills inland, very conscious that my walk would be ending soon.

And of course I also looked back and marvelled that I had walked all the way to here from the furthest peninsula that you can see in the distance, and much more before that. It’s amazing how far you can walk if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other!

Then, soon after, that was it! I was at the end. I didn’t feel a rush of emotion today like when I had arrived in Scarborough, just a quiet sense of contentment tinged with sadness that my time in Yorkshire was almost at an end.

September 24, 2022 – Scarborough Castle

The weather report had predicted rain for all of today and indeed it was raining when I woke up but by the time I sat down to breakfast much of the sky to the east had cleared and there was a giant rainbow outside my window! Scarborough Castle was only a ten minute walk from my accommodation, and on the way I made a quick stop to visit the grave of Anne Brontë who is buried in a nearby churchyard.

Then I was through the entrance gate of the Castle and walking up the cobbled road (whose walls used to be eighteen feet high) towards the keep that was built between 1158 and 1164 by order of King Henry II. Used as a royal residence, this 100 foot high keep stood strong until the English Civil War when the entire front of the keep was demolished by cannon fire from the Parliamentarian troops. The Royalists kept fighting (and they used the fallen stones from the keep as missiles against the enemy), but they eventually had to surrender because of illness among the defenders and dwindling water reserves.

The rear view of the castle looks almost like it could have been built yesterday instead of 900 years ago!

Near to the castle there were stairs that led to a viewing deck on the castle wall, with an excellent view down to South Scarborough,

and west looking down to the castle’s approach road and to the north shore beach.

The castle grounds cover over 16 acres, almost all of it a grassy meadow that is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. More than one hundred different species of grass grow here, as well as many wildflowers including some rare orchids. It must be amazing in the Spring! Mowed paths led through the grass to far-off corners of the site.

Here I am at the end of the headland where a 4th century Roman signal station once stood. The site and size of the tower and its surrounding defensive wall are marked by the raised levels of ground, and the stone foundations you see are the remains of a 16th century church, which itself was built on the site of a previous small chapel from about the year 1000.

I realize now that I was historically inaccurate when I wrote, “Light the fires I see a ship!” in an earlier post. I learned from the English Heritage audio guide that the fires in the Roman signal stations were always kept burning but that the windows were covered and then uncovered – messages were sent in a coded pattern of flashes of light. Amazing!

I walked the long length of the castle’s only surviving curtain wall and through the ruined remains of King John’s 13th century Royal Chamber Block which later became a barracks in the 18th century when the Jacobite Rebellion stoked fears of a possible invasion from Scotland.

Nearby were the foundations of King John’s Great Hall where business would have been conducted and where members of the court, honoured guests, merchants and pilgrims would have been welcomed, fed, and entertained.

Although very little of the castle’s buildings, towers, and walls remain, the audio guide brought episodes from the long and dramatic history of this place to life through stories and accounts. Part of that history is relatively recent and includes the morning of December 16, 1914, when three German warships fired upon the town of Scarborough and the castle. The castle walls and barracks suffered damage, and seventeen civilians died from the assault, including eight women and four children, and eighty were seriously injured. After that attack, “Remember Scarborough” became a rallying cry for recruitment.

The history here though goes back much farther than the history of the castle itself as this headland has been used for over 3000 years as a place of settlement and defence. A small museum displayed a collection of artefacts found here from the Neolithic (a flint scraper and flint flakes), the Iron Age (spindle whorls, glass beads, crucibles for melting metal), and the Bronze Age (mill stone, Axe head, pottery shards and a beautiful sword), as well as from the time of the Romans, the Vikings, and the Middle Ages.

After my visit to the castle, I spent the afternoon and evening in my studio suite and its local neighbourhood (cafe, groceries, launderette, blogging). I was happy and felt replete – I had completed my walk and had seen, learned, and appreciated so much. Thank you to the beautiful North York moors and coast, and to the Cleveland Way for gifting me with this marvellous adventure. Next stop, London!