Sunday at the Seaside
Jul. 17th, 2006 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustMaybe it wasn't the brightest of ideas to head for a seaside resort to start our walk on a hot, sunny Sunday in July: but we'd been shuffling through maps and booklets, looking for a new walk, and rather fancying a coastal walk with some sea breezes - and came up with this walk along the cliffs by Saltburn. Considering that there was some sort of event on - "Victorian footballers and friends" - and that it was a fabulous summer day, we got off pretty lightly: the worst that happened to us was that when we came back down the cliffs into Saltburn and fell into the nearby pub, we took one look at the queue for the bar, and headed back inland for a much needed beer.
The path rises through Saltburn Gill and then on, through fields, through the village of Brotton, climbing all the way across the playing fields with the view back to industrial Teesside, until it reaches the top of the ridge, and plunges down between the new houses.
All this is interesting enough, but it's Saltburn Gill which is special. The narrow wooded valley is now a nature reserve, but the information boards do not mention its outstanding feature: the stream running down through it is bright orange. This is industrial pollution, of course, caused by iron hydroxide from the disused iron mines nearby (it says here), but the contrast between the orange river and the lush green of the leaves, overlaid with the dappled contrast of light or shade had an unreal beauty: we could have been walking through the set of an SF movie.
Brotton straggles up the hill: a newish development, an old terrace, a cemetery which seems to belong to an even older settlement, and then suddenly, between the new houses there's a blue line visible: the sea. A path between two gardens leads, not to more houses but to a stile into a field, with warnings not to feed the livestock: they may bite or kick. Pausing at this warning, you can see the track clear ahead, curving down through fields of wheat and barley to the sheer cliff edge.
It's not as close as it looks, but eventually you skirt Skinningrove and meet the Cleveland Way at the cliff edge. Now it's a straightforward walk back to Saltburn, but with plenty to look at: the sheer drop from the cliffs to the long flat strand beneath, the relics of industry - the Guibal Fan house which ventilated the mine, a sequence of sculptures - "New Milestones" - including this circle, known as "the Charm Bracelet", the site of a Roman Signal Station (or rather, the point adjacent to the site itself, which has now been lost over the cliff), and long views ahead. The walk description comments on "the breathtaking views, including Roseberry Topping to the left,", and the distinctive curved summit of Roseberry Topping is certainly visible. It doesn't mention the even more breathtaking view ahead, past the mouth of the Tees and on, over the cooling towers and chimneys, to County Durham.
Eventually, the path dips and rounds the headland, and Saltburn comes into view - and into hearing: the noise of the funfair, the roar of a speedboat towing a jet-skier... Besides, I was too thirsty for shade even to paddle. Saltburn itself can wait for a cooler day, off season. But the walk was fine.
The path rises through Saltburn Gill and then on, through fields, through the village of Brotton, climbing all the way across the playing fields with the view back to industrial Teesside, until it reaches the top of the ridge, and plunges down between the new houses.All this is interesting enough, but it's Saltburn Gill which is special. The narrow wooded valley is now a nature reserve, but the information boards do not mention its outstanding feature: the stream running down through it is bright orange. This is industrial pollution, of course, caused by iron hydroxide from the disused iron mines nearby (it says here), but the contrast between the orange river and the lush green of the leaves, overlaid with the dappled contrast of light or shade had an unreal beauty: we could have been walking through the set of an SF movie.
Brotton straggles up the hill: a newish development, an old terrace, a cemetery which seems to belong to an even older settlement, and then suddenly, between the new houses there's a blue line visible: the sea. A path between two gardens leads, not to more houses but to a stile into a field, with warnings not to feed the livestock: they may bite or kick. Pausing at this warning, you can see the track clear ahead, curving down through fields of wheat and barley to the sheer cliff edge. It's not as close as it looks, but eventually you skirt Skinningrove and meet the Cleveland Way at the cliff edge. Now it's a straightforward walk back to Saltburn, but with plenty to look at: the sheer drop from the cliffs to the long flat strand beneath, the relics of industry - the Guibal Fan house which ventilated the mine, a sequence of sculptures - "New Milestones" - including this circle, known as "the Charm Bracelet", the site of a Roman Signal Station (or rather, the point adjacent to the site itself, which has now been lost over the cliff), and long views ahead. The walk description comments on "the breathtaking views, including Roseberry Topping to the left,", and the distinctive curved summit of Roseberry Topping is certainly visible. It doesn't mention the even more breathtaking view ahead, past the mouth of the Tees and on, over the cooling towers and chimneys, to County Durham.
Eventually, the path dips and rounds the headland, and Saltburn comes into view - and into hearing: the noise of the funfair, the roar of a speedboat towing a jet-skier... Besides, I was too thirsty for shade even to paddle. Saltburn itself can wait for a cooler day, off season. But the walk was fine.
