It’s Monday 23rd April 18 (St Georges day) and I am heading up to Saltburn-By-The-Sea with David Evans to walk the coastline along the Cleveland Way to Filey.  Originally I was going to walk the north Devon coast, but an invitation from two senior statesman of the Wrong Roaders Steve Read & Robert Delahay persuaded me to alter my plans and head north. Steve and Bob had booked up to walk the coastal section of the Cleveland Way making a change from their normal trips up to the wilds of Scotland. Now, one of my own self imposed rules meant that I must walk the coast clockwise, but their trip was walking anti-clockwise. So the solution was for both parties to meet halfway at Robin Hood’s Bay for an evening out and a general chit chat. So having travelled up together to York we said our goodbyes and headed off for our connection to Saltburn.
Saltburn has maintained much of its original charm as a Victorian seaside resort including its pier, the colourful Italian Gardens and walks through Riftswood. Saltburn has the oldest water balanced cliff tramway in Britain that is still in operation, linking the town with the pier 120 feet below, sadly this was covered in scaffold, so no photo has been included. Unfortunately things covered in scaffold is the curse of winter walking due to maintenance needing to be carried out during the off season. Anyway you can park at sea level where the old fishing village straddles Skelton Beck. The Ship Inn remains as a focal point, steeped in smuggling folklore and the Cleveland Way passes through along the coastline, following a steep path up to Huntcliff, once the site of a Roman Signal Station. It’s a pleasant clean town and definitely worth a visit.

Saltburn pier opened in May 1869, with a steamer landing stage at the head of the pier and two circular kiosks at the entrance. The first steamers left the pier on 14 May 1870, with service to Middlesbrough. In the first six months of operation, there were 50,000 toll-paying visitors. It was built by John Anderson the engineer for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, who saw investment opportunities in the new town. Anderson followed the new pier format developed by Eugenius Birch in his groundbreaking design for Margate Pier, by specifying iron screw-piles to support a metal frame and wooden deck. Originally 1,500 feet (460 m) the pier suffered a catastrophe on the night of 21/22 October 1875, when a gale struck the pier, removing 300 feet (91 m) of the structure at the seaward end, including the pier head, landing stage and part of the pier deck. This left just 1,200 feet (366 m), however after gales in 1953, 1971 and 1973 the pier continued to lose piles to the sea and today only 681 feet (208 m) remain.
In 2000, the Council was successful in gaining a £1.2M National Lottery Heritage Grant, enabling the cast iron trestles that support the pier to be conserved and the steel deck beams replaced with traditional hardwood timber to reflect the pier’s original appearance. Reopened as a Grade ll listed building on 13 July 2001, by MP Chris Smith, the restored structure won a top placing in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Heritage awards. In October 2005, the pier was greatly enhanced by the installation of under deck lighting which illuminates at night and in 2009, the National Piers Society awarded it pier of the year.

Saltburn Mortuary was built in 1881 and is one of only a few remaining Victorian mortuaries. It was constructed for the sole purpose of providing a suitable temporary resting place for the poor souls whose mortal remains had washed up on the beach here at Saltburn. Bodies being washed up on the beach below Hunt Cliff was a regular occurrence and storing them in the Ship Inn while waiting postmortem prompted the need for this mortuary. Originally it was one of three buildings, the other two housing the lifeboat and the rocket brigade house which were demolished due to a road widening scheme. It was last used in 1970.

The coastal section of the Cleveland Way truly starts after the climb up Huntcliff at the back of the Ship Inn. Huntcliff reserve forms part of the cliffs at Saltburn, with Huntcliff being among the highest cliffs on the East Coast of England.

At Huntcliff you will find the Huntcliff Circle, one of three sculptures by Richard Farrington placed on the cliff. Resembling a large charm bracelet and being hollow inside they all have an individual tone when knocked lightly into each other. I can imagine during a strong wind with poor visibility they would sound like the bell of an old ghostly sailing ship at sea.  Now a beloved landmark locals and visitors alike flock to see it.
http://www.richardfarrington.com/huntcliff/

Nearing Skinningrove on the cliff top you can see Skinningroves industrial jetty at Cattersty Sands built in 1880 to allow cargo mainly iron to be shipped from the area.
Skinningroves claim to fame was that it supplied steel to build Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, which was designed and built by British firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd. At Skinningrove the steel was rolled, bent, formed, drilled and shaped ready to be shipped there and to be put together like a giant Meccano set. The bridge was completed and opened in 1932.

Voted in the top 40 best beaches in the Country, Cattersty Sands with its huge sand dunes is a gem. This charming bay in Skinningrove is the perfect place for a relaxing afternoon stroll.

Having already mentioned Skinningrove Jetties industrial past, I was interested as a keen fisherman to read that on the 17th February 2003, a rarely seen Oarfish was caught by Angler Val Fletcher, using a fishing rod baited with squid. The fish was 11 ft 4 in (3.3 m) long and weighed 140 lb (63.5 kg). Graham Hill, the science officer at The Deep, an aquarium in Hull, said that he had never heard of another oarfish being caught off the coast of Britain. The Natural History Museum in London said that it would have been interested in preserving the fish in its permanent collection; however the fish had been ‘cut up into steaks’ before any scientists could examine it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oarfish

From the end of Skinningrove Jetty you can see the small coastal village of Skinningrove. Skinningrove’s name is of Viking influence and is thought to mean skinners’ grove or pit.