Things to See and Do in Staithes

There are loads of things to see and do in the small historic fishing village of Staithes on the North York Moors coast. It is well worth a visit! Reasonably able-bodied young and old explorers will find plenty to do and see. We chose three fun things to do whilst we were there...

The village nestles in a bay between two cliffs, (called "nabs" in that part of the world.) You can easily walk up the cliffs along the Cleveland Way in either direction. We walked up to Old Nab and along the Cleveland Way past Port Mulgrave to Runswick Bay. It is 4.8 miles of glorious views and on arrival in Runswick Bay we were rewarded with a pint of local brew! Needless to say we got the bus back!

You can walk to Boulby Cliff which is also about five miles heading north along the Cleveland Way. It stands at 666 feet and when you get there you will be higher than anyone else on the east coast of England. We plan to do that next time we go.

The views are fantastic from all over Staithes and you just have to photograph them. The light in early evening was fantastic. Everywhere you look there are insta worthy pictures to take! Staithes boasts a great art gallery, so we were able to enjoy other people’s photographs and paintings of the village as well as our own. 

There is also an illusion trail around the village created by local artist Paul Czainski and we couldn’t help but take a photo of each one we found! With our favourite being the one we saw before we knew there was an illusion trail!

All along the coast there are fossil hunting opportunities and we were lucky that the tides were out during the day whilst we were there. I don’t have the patience to look for very long! My husband does though and found some interesting rocks and pebbles. I was happy to sit in the sunshine and gaze into the water which was wonderfully clear and trash free.

Staithes does have a Treasure Trail which we thoroughly enjoyed and we saw parts of the village we would not have seen if we hadn’t been following the Trail. Do let us know if you've been to Staithes.