Staithes Beach

The eminently photographic fishing village of Staithes is reckoned by many to be the prettiest on the east coast. Sitting within the shelter of the harbour and backed by the seafront is a small sandy beach.

Staithes is where the North York Moors National Park meets the sea and the towering, rugged cliffs are in keeping with this landscape. This stretch of coast is sometimes referred to as the Dinosaur Coast and is a popular spot for fossil hunters. However, please take care around the cliff face as falling rocks can be a very real danger.

Some of you may recognise the harbour and village from the CBeebies series Old Jack’s Boat, which starred Bernard Cribbins as Old Jack and his trusty shipmate, Salty the dog.

Pleasant as both the village and beach are the water quality at Staithes is notoriously bad. So bad in fact that over recent years there have been discussions as to whether to remove it from the the UK’s official list of bathing beaches. So, at the time of writing this we wouldn’t recommend anything more than a paddle here.