Runswick Bay was a consolation for a camping trip to Weardale postponed because of the weather. The rain blew off the sea but, as always, it was fun.

When you arrive there's a choice to be made on parking, either free at the top, or at the bottom of the one in three bank for the price of a pint. It's better at the bottom for that fun. The caf was shut, all the boats were pulled up and only one man and his dog walked the 50-yard band of tide freed sands. We had timed our start for mid-afternoon, had checked our Tide Tables as we would need the beach to finish the walk.

But first there's the climb, up through the cascades and terraces of pretty holiday cottages, tiers and tiers of sandstone steps, higher for the views of the bay, dunnetts in the lilac flowers, and then an old winding road narrowed by green where blackbirds harvested worms near drowned by rain.

At the top, we took Ellerby Lane past a dozen bungalows to find the old railway line. Soon the track bed was the typical wide cinder, the gentlest of gradients for three miles with shelter most of the time from the hawthorn each side, whether on an embankment or in a cutting. And in the hawthorn the chatter of small birds, a box bush gone bush and bluebells or garlic on slopes into valleys.

The railway line takes a big curve inland to get around a valley. When it comes back towards the sea there's a view of Runswick Bay, the tide was still going out. Then the track parallels the cliffs into Kettleness where the old station is colonised by scouts and there are but half-a-dozen houses. Here we joined the Cleveland Way.

A twin rotor chopper thudded over Kettleness Point, we took the cliff edge path. On the way back there's a contrast of views down the coast to the harsh and barren point, up the coast to the picture postcard Runswick Bay.

The wind came off the sea, making swept-back hedges. On the beach, 300 feet below, dot and dash figures were cast on the widening sands, and skylarks sang.

Then we reached the valley that the railway line had avoided but we could not.

Hundreds of steps took us into the wild V-shaped cut. At the bottom, the beck gushed chocolate-coloured through the high dark flaky shale, for five possibly dicey yards there's a rope pinned to the rock to help you down to the sands.

Fossil freaks will peel back leaves of shale and find 200 million-year-old prints of spiral ammonites. Romantics will walk the water's edge and skip stones over the waves. Those who haven't checked their tide times may have to scramble, wade or swim however.

  • directions When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. From mini-roundabout at bottom of bank, head 100 yards into village, pass telephone box, steps on left after pub and keep uphill on steps, ignore side turns. Right to tarmac path (concrete post and waymarked post). Join road at top of bank, second left to Ellerby Lane (Whitby).

2. About 100 yards after speed sign, path on left up bank in trees, narrow path, widens to track.

3. Left to road at Kettleness, pass houses (Cleveland Way sign), track on right to cliff edge, round farmyard then at coastguard station right to track, 100 yards, field gate, right to field edge path by gully then by cliffs.

4. Many steep steps down into valley, step over beck to shale path' by beck, rope at steep bit, left to beach and sands back to Runswick.

  • fact file Distance: Five and a half miles.

Time: Three hours.

General location: Near Whitby.

Start: At car park at bottom of bank in Runswick Bay.

Right of way: Public and permissive.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL27 North York Moors eastern area.

Date walked: May, 2006.

Road route: Signed from the A174 north of Whitby. Steep, one-in-four, road down to carpark.

Car parking: Car park at bottom of bank £2.10 for five hours, car park at top of bank free.

Lavatories: At top and bottom of bank.

Refreshments: Caf and inns.

Tourist & public transport information: Whitby TIC 01974 602674.

Terrain: Cliff top, beach and disused railway line.

Points of interest: Low tide is 17.09hrs tomorrow.

Difficulty: Many steps, some tricky.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.