Edible mussels
Garden parsley and
wallflower
Great crested newt
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Parking at the station in Saltburn we were
able to buy some excellent gourmet food for lunch from the Real Meals
shop. We set out down the road to the
mouth of the river and climbed the hill above Hunt Cliff. For the first time this trip we were faced
with major climbs and descents as a different geology set in, very similar to
Dorset and with the same rocks. Below us the shore was a shelf of flat
rock, the tide being out, and people were collecting mussels from the rock
pools. The scenery was striking,
although the flora was unexceptional and the only less common birds were the
fulmars and kittiwakes nesting on some of the cliffs, their nests marked by
white streaks running down the red sandstone rocks, and the sand martins in
the softer sands near the cliff-tops.
We came down at the small village
of Skinningrove, an old
iron-working town, where the river ran red and rubbish such as bicycles
deposited in it was totally coated in rust.
Fishing boats still operated from here as they had done for centuries
before the beginning of iron ore extraction around 1850. There was then a particularly stiff climb
up the highest hill on the east coast, Rockhole, climbing from sea level to
over 200 metres. Near the top we sat on
the cliff edge to eat our long-anticipated lunch, the only factor marring the
beautiful day and the scenery being swarms of pollen beetles blown in the
strong breeze, sometimes hundreds landing all over us so persistently that it
became increasingly annoying. There
must have been billions of these blowing everywhere and coating many of the
plants black with multi-layer aggregations.
Artworks here commemorate the metal working history of the area. Below us were old quarry workings for alum. Grey spoil heaps marred the whole shore
from here to the next village Boulby. There is still a working alum mine in
Boulby, as we saw by the main road when we returned in a taxi at the end of
the day. A special goods railway runs
from the mine to Saltburn to transport the alum, and we saw the train pass
close by at Hunt Cliff. Presumably the
same alum shales emerge on the south coast – witness Alum
Bay on the Isle
of Wight. From Boulby the
way was level to Staithes, where we had to descend beside the river and
harbour, past cliffs crowded with treacle mustard, wallflower, escaped
parsley and cabbage, crossing the river at the bottom by cliffs crowded with herring
gulls to climb once more the narrow steep twisting lanes on the other
side. There were few facilities here,
but after a very steep climb aided by a hand-rail beside the road, we found a
little shop where we could get refreshing iced-lollies, fruit and cold
water. On our way back to our hotel we
stopped off at a damp wood at Dunsdale on the southern fringe of Middlesbrough to look for land snails on acid
soil. Here we found both smooth and great
crested newts hiding under a large stone, dragonflies, and, from leaf litter,
three new species of snail for us – Columella
aspera, Euconulus fulvus and Spermodea
lamellata.
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Spermodea lamellata
Treacle mustard
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Entering Staithes
Herring gull,
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Metal sculptures
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