The final day of the Coast to Coast: 15 miles (24 km) of moor, wood and clifftop carrying you from Grosmont, in the heart of the North York Moors National Park, to the North Sea at Robin Hood's Bay. It opens with a stiff road climb onto Sleights Moor (about 290 m, near the Bronze Age Breckon Howe and Flat Howe barrows), then drops into the wooded valley of Little Beck, where the path threads past the Hermitage and Falling Foss, at 67 ft (20 m) the highest waterfall in the North York Moors. A boggy crossing of Sneaton Low Moor and the Graystone Hills — the very last moor of the walk — leads to Hawsker, where you join the Cleveland Way for a breezy three-mile finish along the Jurassic cliffs past Maw Wyke Hole and Ness Point. The descent into Robin Hood's Bay, with its red-pantiled cottages tumbling down a steep ravine, is one of the great endings in British walking. By long tradition you go to the slipway, dip your boots in the North Sea and throw in the pebble you carried from St Bees. Rated Hard, mainly for its length and the cumulative effort of two weeks on the feet.
Highlights
- Falling Foss, at 67 ft (20 m) the highest waterfall in the North York Moors, in the oak woods of Little Beck
- The Hermitage — a room carved from a single sandstone boulder, dated 1790
- Sleights Moor and its Bronze Age burial mounds (Breckon Howe, Flat Howe)
- Three miles of Cleveland Way clifftop finish along the Jurassic coast
- Robin Hood's Bay: the journey's end, boot-dipping and pebble tradition
- Falling Foss Tea Garden at Midge Hall, an 18th-century former gamekeeper's cottage
Know before you go
- Long final day
- Cliff-top path near the finish
History
Grosmont grew on ironstone and the railway George Stephenson engineered for Whitby; opened in 1836 as the Whitby and Pickering Railway, it is today the northern terminus of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The walk then crosses Sleights Moor, scattered with Bronze Age barrows and standing stones (the High and Low Bridestones, Breckon Howe and the Flat Howes). In the valley of Little Beck the path passes the Littlebeck Alum Works, which produced alum for the textile and tanning trades from around 1690 until competition closed it by about 1809, and the Hermitage, a folly hollowed from one huge boulder in 1790 and inscribed 'G C 1790' — attributed to George Clubb, a 'jack of all trades' to nearby Newton House. The walk ends at Robin Hood's Bay, a fishing and smuggling village that in the 18th century was among the busiest smuggling havens on the Yorkshire coast; it was said a bale of silk could pass from the bottom of the village to the top through a warren of cellars and passages without seeing daylight. The whole route was devised by Alfred Wainwright in his 1973 book A Coast to Coast Walk and became an official National Trail on 26 March 2026.
Nature & Wildlife
Little Beck Wood is a semi-natural ancient woodland, much of it a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve and SSSI of oak, ash, alder and cherry with a hazel understory along Little Beck — rich in spring bluebells, wood anemones, primroses, ferns and mosses, with dippers and grey wagtails on the stream and woodland birds such as nuthatch and treecreeper in the canopy. The open moors of Sleights and the Graystone Hills are blanket bog and heather, alive with red grouse, golden plover, curlew and meadow pipit, and ablaze with purple ling in late August. The clifftop finish along the Cleveland Way passes seabird-haunted Jurassic cliffs, with fulmars and gulls below and gorse, thrift and sea campion along the path; porpoises and seals are sometimes seen offshore.
Geology
The cliffs and foreshore at Robin Hood's Bay expose one of the finest sequences of Lower Jurassic rock in northern Europe. The bay is cut into a gentle dome of Redcar Mudstone, and its famous wave-cut 'scars' (or 'scaurs') — concentric arcs of harder calcareous siltstone and sandstone laid bare at low tide — are a classic of British geology. The site is the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Pliensbachian Stage, defined at Wine Haven just south of the bay, and is renowned for fossils: ammonites, belemnites, bivalves, brachiopods and crinoids. Dinosaur footprints occur along this stretch of the Yorkshire coast, sometimes called the 'Dinosaur Coast'. Inland, Sleights Moor is heather moorland over Jurassic sandstones, and the Little Beck valley is incised through the same beds, including the alum shales once quarried here.
Scenic Highlights
The day delivers an exceptional variety of scenery in a short span. From Sleights Moor there are wide views down the Esk valley to Whitby and its ruined abbey on the headland. The Little Beck valley is a hidden, mossy, waterfall-filled glen — a complete contrast to the open tops. The crossing of the last moor gives a final taste of the heather uplands before the great reveal: the North Sea opening out beyond Hawsker. The clifftop walk along the Cleveland Way is dramatic and exposed, and the descent into Robin Hood's Bay, the red roofs falling in tiers to the water, is one of the most photographed endings on any British trail.
Photography
Falling Foss is the headline photo — best after rain, framed by oak woodland; bring a tripod for a slow-shutter shot and visit the Hermitage just upstream. From Sleights Moor, shoot the long view to Whitby Abbey, especially in early or late light. The Cleveland Way clifftops offer big sea-and-cliff compositions toward Ness Point and back to Whitby. The classic finish image is from the upper village looking down the ravine of red pantile roofs to the slipway and the bay — golden hour and high tide are ideal. Heather on the moors peaks in late August for foreground colour.
When to Visit
Walkable roughly April to October. Spring brings bluebells to Little Beck Wood and drier moor; late summer (August) sets the moors purple with heather but the Graystone Hills can be at their boggiest after wet spells. Autumn gives gold in the woods and quieter paths. This is a long final day — in April or October daylight is short, so start early and check sunset, as the cliff section is best done in good light. Winter walking is feasible in settled weather but the moor is exposed and the clifftop path should be treated with respect in wind or poor visibility.
Stay & Eat Nearby
Robin Hood's Bay has B&Bs, guesthouses, inns, holiday cottages and a youth hostel (Boggle Hole YHA is about a mile south along the coast), plus nearby campsites and bunkhouses; many walkers also stay in Whitby (about 6 miles north) and bus in. Book well ahead in peak season (May to September) and over bank holidays, as the village is small and very popular.
Water & Facilities
Carry water for the moors. Reliable refreshment/water points roughly in order: Grosmont (shops, cafes, pubs at the start, about 0 mi); Littlebeck hamlet (limited facilities, about 3.5 mi); Falling Foss Tea Garden at Midge Hall (seasonal cafe in the woods, about 5 mi); Hawsker (pub, cafe and campsite shop, about 10 mi); then nothing until the full choice of pubs and cafes at Robin Hood's Bay (about 15 mi). The long open crossing of Sneaton Low Moor and the Graystone Hills has no safe water, so fill up at Falling Foss or Hawsker.
Safety
Treat the open moor and the cliffs seriously. Difficulty is Hard, but chiefly for length and cumulative fatigue rather than technical ground — stamina demand is high (15 miles / 24 km, ~2,234 ft / 681 m ascent, front-loaded by the road climb out of Grosmont), terrain is mixed (road, woodland, bog, fields, clifftop) and the navigation/exposure risk is moderate. The Graystone Hills are genuinely boggy and route-finding is easy to get wrong in mist, where a common error leads walkers off-line into bog — carry OS map (Explorer OL27, North York Moors Eastern) and compass or GPS and don't rely on a phone alone. The Cleveland Way clifftop has unfenced, eroding drops; stay back from the edge and take extra care in wind, rain or with children or dogs. Mobile signal is patchy on the moor and in the Little Beck valley. Carry waterproofs, warm layers, food and at least 1.5 litres of water — there is a long dry stretch over the moors. In an emergency dial 999 (or 112) and ask for Police then Mountain Rescue (Scarborough & Ryedale / Cleveland teams cover this area); for non-urgent medical advice call NHS 111. On the foreshore at Robin Hood's Bay watch the tide — the bay floods fast and the scars can cut you off.
Accessibility
This is a strenuous full-day hillwalk and is not wheelchair- or buggy-accessible: it includes a steep road climb, rough and boggy moorland, woodland steps and an exposed clifftop path. Falling Foss and the Falling Foss Tea Garden, however, can be reached on a short walk from the May Beck or Falling Foss car parks for those wanting just the woodland highlight. Robin Hood's Bay village is built on a very steep hill with cobbled streets and steps; the main bank down to the slipway is steep but tarmacked. Dogs on leads are welcome along the route; keep dogs under close control across grouse moor and clifftops, and on leads near livestock.