Walk · North Yorkshire

Staithes, Cowbar and Boulby Cliff

Staithes · TS13 5AD
Staithes Boulby A174 Boulby Bank Staithes Beck N 880 YD © OpenStreetMap contributors
6MILES
3h 15mON FOOT
300mCLIMB
CircularSHAPE
The route A-road B-road Lane Track Path Water Woodland
Off-road 85% 15% shares tarmac with cars
Field & moor path 55%Lane & track 30%Road with traffic 15%

Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and not a navigation aid — carry OS Explorer on the hill.

Starts at
TS13 5AD
Directions to the start →

Six miles and around three and a quarter hours over the highest cliff on England's east coast, 300 metres of climbing with one long unrelenting pull from Cowbar to the 203-metre summit and a field-path return past the trig point. Start at the Staithes visitor car park at the top of the bank, since the village itself is closed to cars, and the number 5 bus from Whitby stops beside it. The clifftop fields are grazed and the path runs close to a sheer and unfenced 200-metre drop for over a mile, so this is a lead walk for its whole seaward half, though the return over the tops is open ground with a beck to drink from.

THE SMALL PRINTFor more than a mile the Cleveland Way runs within a few metres of a sheer, unfenced 200-metre drop over Boulby Cliff, with the edge undercut and slumping in places, so dogs must be on the lead throughout the coastal section. Sheep and cattle graze the clifftop and the inland return.

House rules, decoded

Livestock — leads on
REGION · NORTH YORKSHIRE
GRID · 54.5563, -0.7920
SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.OUTDOORACTIVE.COM/EN/ROUTE/HIKING-TRAIL/NORTH-EAST-ENGLAND/STAITHES-AND-BOULBY-CLIFFS-A-CLEVELAND-WAY-CIRCULAR-WALK/62201957/
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