Walk · North Yorkshire

Whitby Abbey, Saltwick Nab and Hawsker

Whitby · YO22 4JT
N 1 MILE
8.1MILES
4hON FOOT
280mCLIMB
CircularSHAPE
Off-road 87% 13% shares tarmac with cars
Field & moor path 42%Lane & track 45%Road with traffic 13%

Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.

Starts at
YO22 4JT
Directions to the start →

Eight miles and around four hours, out along the Cleveland Way past Saltwick Nab to High Hawsker and back on the level Cinder Track over Larpool Viaduct, with 280 metres of climbing concentrated in the little ravines on the cliff leg. Start at the Abbey pay-and-display car park at the top of the 199 steps, or leave the car in town and walk up, since the Abbey car park fills by mid-morning in season. The Cinder Track half is a fine off-lead stretch, but the outward cliff path runs within a stride or two of an unfenced 50-metre drop and crosses grazed fields, and Saltwick Bay below is a well-known tide trap with a rising sea cutting off the beach access.

THE SMALL PRINTThe Cleveland Way from the Abbey to Hawsker runs along an unfenced, crumbling cliff edge for three miles and passes through sheep and cattle pasture, so dogs need to be on the lead for the whole outward leg. Saltwick Bay is cut off well before high water and the scramble back up is not passable once the sea reaches the cliff.

House rules, decoded

Livestock — leads on
Off-lead OK
REGION · NORTH YORKSHIRE
GRID · 54.4880, -0.6060
SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.OUTDOORACTIVE.COM/EN/ROUTE/HIKING-TRAIL/NORTH-EAST-ENGLAND/WHITBY-AND-HAWSKER-A-CLEVELAND-WAY-CIRCULAR-WALK/63388164/
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