"
South of Ness Point crude stiles give
place to
kissing gates, hinting that
civilisation is near. It is, and it takes the form of an
avenue of
modern villas, which could be
suburbia anywhere, especially with a
name like Mount Pleasant North. The
real Robin Hood's Bay is
found by turning left down Station Road
past the
car park. A
narrow street with flights of
steps for
pedestrians now descends very steeply into a picturesque huddle of red-roofed
buildings literally perched on the edge of the
sea.
Proceed with decorum to the bottom of the hill, to the limit of
terra firma, where the tarmac ends at a shingly
beach and the
sea. Go forward and but your
boot in the first salt-water puddle. By this
ritual you will have completed a
walk from one side of
England to the
other."
A. Wainwright,
A Coast to Coast Walk: St. Bees Head to Robin Hood's Bay: A Pictorial Guide, London: Michael Joseph, 1992. (Originally published by the Westmorland Gazette, 1973).
