Villages & Places
Staithes
Where the moors meet the sea at their most dramatic: a harbour wedged between two headlands, cottages stacked up a ravine, and a village that has produced fishermen, a famous navigator and a whole school of painters. It is the north coast's finest half-day, and it starts with parking at the top.
Where it is, and getting there
Staithes sits on the A174 coast road ten miles north of Whitby and about the same south of Saltburn, at the northern edge of the North York Moors National Park. Coast buses between Whitby and Middlesbrough stop on the main road at the top; the nearest railway stations are Whitby on the Esk Valley line and Saltburn on the Northern network.
On foot, the Cleveland Way passes straight through, arriving over Boulby cliffs from the north (the highest cliffs on England's east coast are just up the road) or along the tops from Runswick Bay to the south.
Parking: the top of the bank, always
Use the pay-and-display car park at the top, beside the main road. Below it, Staithes Lane drops steeply into a village of lanes barely wider than a handcart, with residents-only bays, no turning space and a very unhappy ending for anyone who tries. The walk down takes five minutes; allow ten or fifteen back up, and wear shoes with some grip on wet cobbles.
The car park is busy from mid-morning on summer weekends and during the Staithes Festival weekend in September, when the village fills with pop-up galleries and music. Early or late is the way.
The harbour, the beach and the tide
The heart of Staithes is the harbour between Cowbar Nab and Penny Nab, still used by a few small boats for pots and crab. Beyond the harbour wall there is a modest beach of sand and pebble that shrinks to nothing at high water and opens onto rock ledges at low. Check a tide table for Whitby before you plan a shore walk.
Those ledges are Jurassic shale, and this is one of the best stretches of the Dinosaur Coast for ammonites and belemnites weathering loose onto the foreshore. Collect from the beach, never hammer the cliffs, and stay well out from the cliff base, this coast is actively slipping.
Captain Cook, and the painters
A teenaged James Cook came to Staithes in the 1740s to work as a shop assistant. The story goes that the sea he could see from the counter finished the apprenticeship early; he moved to Whitby, took to the colliers, and the rest is Pacific history. The original shop was lost to the sea long ago, but a Cook connection runs the length of this coast, from Great Ayton, where he grew up, to the museum on Whitby's harbourside.
Around 1900 the village drew an artists' colony, the Staithes Group, among them Laura and Harold Knight, for the same reason people photograph it today: the light, the stacked geometry of the roofs, and the working harbour below. Small galleries and studios still trade on the main street.
Pubs, food and dogs
The Cod & Lobster stands on the harbour wall itself, so exposed that it has been washed through by the sea more than once; the Royal George and a handful of cafes and a fish shop make up the rest. It is a dog-friendly village by habit rather than signage, dogs are welcome on the beach and in most bars, but the harbour is working ground and lead-work is sensible around the slipway.
Walks from the village
Cowbar and the Nab (about 1 mile). Over the footbridge to the Cowbar cottages and up onto the headland for the classic view back over the roofs to Penny Nab. Short, steep, and the photograph everybody comes for.
Port Mulgrave and back (about 3 miles). South on the Cleveland Way to the strange abandoned harbour of Port Mulgrave, built to ship ironstone out by sea, returning by field paths through Hinderwell.
Runswick Bay via the cliffs (about 4 miles one way). A superb cliff-top stretch to the sandiest beach on this coast, with the bus back along the A174. See more in our walks section.
Staithes FAQs
- Where do you park in Staithes?
- In the pay-and-display car park at the top of the bank, on the main road above the village. The old village below is a one-way tangle of narrow lanes with residents-only parking and nowhere to turn, so cars are effectively barred. Park at the top and walk down, it takes about five minutes, and rather longer coming back up.
- Is Staithes worth visiting?
- Yes, many people rate it the prettiest fishing village on the east coast. Cottages are stacked in a ravine around a working harbour, there is a beach and a fossil-rich shore at low tide, and the whole place is compact enough to see in half a day. It is quieter and less commercial than Whitby or Robin Hood's Bay.
- What is Staithes famous for?
- For fishing, for the young James Cook. Who worked in a shop in the village before moving to Whitby and going to sea, and for the Staithes Group of artists who painted here around 1900. Children may know it as Sandy Cove from CBeebies' Old Jack's Boat, which was filmed in the village.
- Can you swim at Staithes?
- Paddling and rock-pooling are the sensible uses of the beach. Bathing water quality here has a poor record, the harbour is working water, and the tide covers much of the sand. For swimming, Runswick Bay, Sandsend or Saltburn are far better choices along this coast.
- How far is Staithes from Whitby?
- About ten miles north, roughly 20 minutes by car on the A174, or around 30 minutes by bus. Runswick Bay lies between the two, four miles south of Staithes, and the Cleveland Way cliff path links all three on foot.