A Grand Day Out – Flamborough Head

Summer holiday? Gloriously hot sunny weather? It must be time for a grand day out.

We packed up a picnic and headed to the coast. Our destination was Flamborough Head – a rather beautiful area, with its dramatic white cliffs and rugged coastline. There are one or two small stretches of beach, but we headed for the cliff tops, where we found a perfect picnic site, away from the crowds and overlooking the sea.

Unfortunately, this part of the coast is slowly disappearing – the cliffs on the East Coast of Yorkshire are constantly being eroded and collapses are not uncommon. The result is a rapidly changing coastline – we saw the remains of a boundary fence stretching across a newly formed cove and what appeared to be a capped-off water pipe protruding a good couple of metres from a cliff. There are a handful of buildings on the cliffs (only brave souls need apply for residence), but mainly it’s open countryside, with a footpath that runs along the coast.

Our planned post-picnic walk followed this path, but our intended destination of Bempton Cliffs proved to be a little over-ambitious in the time that we had available. What looked easy on a large scale map proved to be a rather more winding path once we were on the ground – particularly when the path diverted around the eroded sections of the coastline. We made it to within sight of the RSPB reserve, but decided that the sensible thing was to turn back and return to Bempton another time.

We still had an enjoyable walk. We expected to see seabirds and we weren’t disappointed, the numbers were not as impressive as at Bempton, but there were still plenty of birds in the air, on the sea and along the cliffs. There were also lots of butterflies and wildflowers to look at.

No puffins though, unless you count this one:

We also took some time out to watch a rather bigger bird engage in what appeared to be a training exercise:

There’s only one way to round off a day at the seaside, so we headed into the village of Flamborough in search of some traditional British cooking. If you are in the area, I highly recommend a visit to High Street Fisheries, their traditionally cooked Yorkshire fish and trips is truly fabulous.

After a picture-perfect day, some traditional British rain started to make an appearance, so we decided it was time to head home. I’m sure we’ll be back.