A traditional seaside village, Staithes is a quaint, peaceful town with cobblestone streets and narrow alleyways. A secluded sandy beach is nestled among the rocky shoreline, surrounded by the historic harbour and bordered by high, jagged cliffs on three sides. Whales and dolphins are regularly spotted from the coastline paths around Staithes.
Staithes is famous for its ties to Captain Cook, who served as an apprentice to a draper close to the harbour - visitors can explore the history of Staithes at an excellent free museum. Today, Staithes boasts an excellent selection of traditional pubs, shops, and tea rooms, and is a must-see for anyone travelling to the North Yorkshire Coast. There is still a RNLI lifeboat station in Staithes, along with a small fleet of cobles (fishing boats) that land fish, crab, and lobster. Boat trips are offered for fishing, birdwatching, and whale watching. Old Jack's Boat, a well-liked BBC children's television programme, is filmed there.
Artists are drawn to the village by its inspiring and ever-changing light, and the higgledy-piggledy tumbledown of cottages to the sea. The annual Staithes Art Festival in September continues to be extremely popular with artists and art lovers alike.
The prehistoric cliffs around Staithes harbour are a great place to look for fossils, particularly from the Jurassic period. Ammonites are a common find, along with other marine fossils like belemnites, bivalves, and trace fossils. In the early 1990s, a seagoing dinosaur fossil was discovered between Staithes and Port Mulgrave.
Getting Around: There is little parking down in the harbour, the cottage provides guests with off-street parking for 2 cars. There are regular well priced bus routes through Staithes to take you north towards Saltburn and south towards Runswick Bay, Whitby, Robin Hoods Bay and Scarborough. Taxis are also accessible in Staithes.
North Yorkshire: Staithes in located at the tip of North Yorkshire within the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, with landscape ranging from heather-clad moorland and deep secluded dales, to the cliffs and coves of the magnificent coastline making it a haven for walkers and wildlife watching. The Cleveland Way passes through Staithes and is a popular stop-off destination.