Flamborough Head ~ Hard Walk

Distance Covered: 6 miles Time to Complete Walk 3.5 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

A jaw dropping walk which will leave you in wonderment of this beautiful part of the Yorkshire coast. From the South Landing make your way past some sculptures onto a long cliff side path. Then as you arrive at Flamborough Head take in the amazing views and geology. If you are lucky you will see and certainly hear sea lions basking on the shore below. Spot the Drinking Dinosaur rock formation! Then make your way to the lighthouse and cafes and shops at Flamborough Head and also at the North Shore. A wonderful day out. Parking is £2.90 all day at South Landing. 

Virus Awareness: The paths are narrow on the clfftop path and it can be busy, however other walkers will give way and vice versa. It can be busy in the cafes and the North Shore so take a face mask if stopping for something to eat and drink.

General Safety Tips:  Stick to the path and stay away from the cliff edge for a better look or a better photo. Watch out for cars at Flamborough Head and the North Shore- it can get busy. 

The Flamborough Head Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough, head onto the Guisborough Road towards Whitby which is the A171.

Turn right at Whitby heading towards Scarborough. Joint the A165 and drive through Scarborough. Staying on the A165 look for a left turning into Speeton which is the B1229 and head towards Flamborough. Look for signs to the South Landing which is on South Shore Road. The car park is on the left and all day parking is £2.90

Map of the Flamborough Head Walk

The Walk

From the car park turn left and head down the road to South Shore

Look for some steps in the right hand corner on your left which head up to top of the cliff.

Turn right and follow the path.

Keep left heading past a bench and a sculpture.

Keep on the path as it bends to the left.

Keep ahead on the cliff top path.

Head past a stone sculpture.

Keep on the path with a cornfield to your left and amazing views to your right.

Keep right as the path diverges.

Soon you come to some steps down and up again on the other side.

Keep on the path which bends with the cliff edge.

The path continues for some time and over a small bridge.

You can spot the lighthouse in the distance. Keep in the direction of two waymarked posts.

Eventually you arrive at Flamborough Head, the paths intercross each other and head for the one that gives you the best view. It is worth staying for a while here to take in the amazing views and see if you spot any sea-lions and make out The Drinking Dinosaur rock formation! 

Head on the path towards the two pylons.

Then head towards the lighthouse.

Just before reaching the lighthouse, look for a path to the right which goes around the lighthouse and you emerge onto a car park with shops and eateries.

Head straight past them and towards a beacon.

Look for a waymark and climb down steps keeping left in the direction of the cliffs ahead.

Keep heading towards the cliff top ahead.

Keeping a golf course to your left head past a bunker.

Taking care again follow the cliff top path with amazing views below.

Keep on the path as it becomes grassy and head into a nature reserve.

Approaching the North Shore, look for a left turning which heads into a carpark and cafes. North Shore can be seen below.

Turn left onto the road and follow it into Flamborough.

At an intersection in the road keep left and head into the village which has a lot of nice holiday homes.

Head left and pass the Co-op. From there turn right onto South Sea Road. Keep on this road head ahead at a signpost towards South Landing passing Flamborough Library on your right.

Keep in the direction of South Landing passing housing and eventually you will come to the South Landing on your left.

Flamborough Head

Flamborough Head (/ˈflæmbərə/) is a promontory, 8 miles (13 km) long on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, with sheer white cliffs. The cliff top has two standing lighthouse towers, the oldest dating from 1669 and Flamborough Head Lighthouse built in 1806. The older lighthouse was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1952 and is now recorded in the National Heritage List for England, maintained by Historic England.[1] The cliffs provide nesting sites for many thousands of seabirds, and are of international significance for their geology.Flamborough Head has been designated a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) by the British Government's Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). (Special Areas of Conservation are strictly protected sites designated under the European Community Habitats Directive, which requires the establishment of a European network of important high-quality conservation sites to make a significant contribution to conserving the 189 habitat types and 788 species identified in Annexes to this Directive.) Flamborough Outer Headland is an 83 hectares (210 acres) Local Nature Reserve.[2][3] Yorkshire Wildlife Trust manages the Flamborough Cliffs Nature Reserve, located on the headland.[4]The headland is the only chalk sea cliff in the north. The coastline within the SSSI has strata from the upper Jurassic through to top of the Cretaceous period, and the headland exhibits a complete sequence of Chalk Group North Sea Basin strata, dated from 100 to 70 million years ago. The various chalk deposits are known as the Ferriby, Welton, Burnham and Flamborough Chalk.[7] The dramatic white cliffs contrast with the low coast of Holderness to the south, where the chalk is deeply buried and the glacial boulder clay above erodes very readily.[8] The chalk cliffs have a larger number and a wider range of cave habitats at Flamborough than at any other chalk site in Britain, the largest of which are known to extend for more than 50 metres from their entrance on the coast. There are also stacks, natural arches and blowholes. The site is identified as being of international importance in the Geological Conservation Review.[7]Seabirds such as northern gannets, kittiwakes and Atlantic puffins breed abundantly on the cliffs.[7] Bempton Cliffs, on the north side of the headland, has an RSPB reserve and visitor centre.[9] The shooting of seabirds at Flamborough Head was condemned by Professor Alfred Newton in his 1868 speech to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Local MP Christopher Sykes introduced the Sea Birds Preservation Act 1869, the first Act to protect wild birds in the United Kingdom.[10]Because it projects into the sea, Flamborough Head attracts many migrant birds in autumn, and is a key point for observing passing seabirds. When the wind is in the east, many birders watch for seabirds from below the lighthouse, or later in the autumn comb the hedges and valleys for landbird migrants. Flamborough Head has a bird observatory.