Growing up in Staithes (in my opinion the most atmospheric and beautiful village in the world) the Cleveland Way was a regular feature of my life. The path runs through the village and along the spectacular North East Coastline running all the way along the coast from Saltburn and ending in Filey Bring North Yorkshire.

I regularly walked along the cliff paths to the next village of Runswick Bay, often doing the first part via the rocks at low tide as far as Port Mulgrave which is a stretch of evocative and raw coastline rich in fossils and steeped in history. In the opposite direction we could walk along Boulby cliffs to the alum mines – (where you can see the fantastic Miner’s Bait Table sculpture by Katy Ventress, who happens to be the younger sister of a special friend to me), sometimes going as far as Saltburn along what was the old railway line and past the iconic charm bracelet sculpture, there is a great blog post about that here.

*Links to the Miner’s Bait Table and the Charm Bracelet Sculpture blog posts from the brilliant https://www.realyorkshireblog.com which I have just discovered and look forward to exploring further!

Walking the full Cleveland way was something that I always dreamt of doing, but have to admit (and assumption is the mother of all cock ups), that I wrongly assumed it was a full coastal route. Discussing this with some friends a few months ago, we decided that we would endeavour to walk the route in sections as and when we could, from start to finish. It was then that I discovered the route actually starts in Helmsley, before looping in land and meeting the coast at Saltburn and completing the part that is well known to me.

We completed stage one during June, with 10 of us in total. Two families with five children between us and one grandparent. Starting at the acorn sculpture by the Castle Carpark in Helmsley we ventured off into the hills and spent a beautiful day enjoying the scenery, stopping to picnic by a stream in a meadow full of wild flowers. Having a range of ages (the eldest kids being 16 and the youngest 8) we let the older ones set off ahead of us with walkie talkies and a map! A brave move – that payed off, allowing them to forge ahead but also ensuring we all stayed on the right track.

We decided to end the first stretch of the walk at the Sutton Bank Visitors centre, but made the dog loop end part of the walk to stand above the White Horse at Kilburn – this added on another mile or two and some very tired children – but it was worth it for the view! We also all loved watching the gliders take off. I’m not sure when we will complete part 2, it may take us many years to do the whole thing – combining busy family calendars and different challenges along the way, but that’s part of the fun – to have our own little walking collective and shared ambition. Most of all, we loved enjoying this amazing landscape right on our doorstep.