Runswick Bay and Kettleness Circular

This is a circular loop of 5.4 miles / 8.64 km in total, not one way, starting and finishing at the upper pay-and-display car park at Runswick Bank Top, opposite the Cliffemount Hotel. It links three very different kinds of walking: sand, clifftop path, and a dismantled railway corridor.

• Drop down through the narrow paths and lanes of the village to Runswick Sands.
• Follow the beach toward Whitby as far as the cleft at Hob Holes.
• Cross the stream on the stepped bridge and climb the long stairway to the cliff top.
• Follow the Cleveland Way along the clifftops, with views back over the bay, to the hamlet of Kettleness and the site of its former station.
• Return inland on the old railway trackbed and local access paths to the upper car park.

Moderate, about 5 out of 10, with roughly 252 m / 826 ft of ascent. Most of that comes in one push: the many steps from beach level at Hob Holes up to the cliff top. Underfoot you get soft sand, grassy and earth coastal path, steps, village lanes and the firmer surface of the former railway. Wet weather makes the ravine and the earth sections slippery, so pick footwear with grip.

Plan this one around the tide. The beach section is essential to the loop, and the crumbly cliffs below the coastal path are not a safe way out if you get cut off, so only set off with a comfortable window of falling or low water. Hob Holes carries rockfall risk and is best appreciated from a distance. On the clifftop stretch the edge is unfenced in places, so keep well back, especially with children. The turn onto the old railway near Kettleness is easy to miss, so watch for it.

The coast here was worked hard. Alum and ironstone quarrying shaped the cliffs and slopes around Kettleness, and the old Loftus to Whitby line you walk back on served this shoreline before it closed. Earlier coastal erosion has reworked the land near the hamlet. Fossils sometimes turn up loose on the beach, but never dig into the cliffs.

Reach the upper Runswick Bank Top car park from the A174 on the signed Runswick turn. There is a smaller car park down near the beach, but it is more constrained and can fill, so use the upper one and walk down through the village. Dogs are welcome on the public route and should be kept under close control near livestock, birds, other walkers and the unfenced cliff edge. Short leads are advised around livestock, and seasonal lead control applies where ground-nesting birds are present.

If you want something meaningfully easier and more accessible on this stretch of coast, the short Miles without Stiles route at Runswick Bay is the better pick.