• The "Streets" in Robin Hood's Bay not very vehicle friendly!

  • A 'selfie' taken from Whitby pier back toward the abbey and town

  • We'd escaped the forecasted continuous rain of the Lakes, but it wasn't entirely dry in the east - we had several dramatic downpours between bright sunshine, which of course created some amazing rainbows...

  • This climb near the arete of one the sandstone towers at Scuggdale was totally exposed to gales from the west, which at times were ferocious, so much so that at several points I was physically moved by the force of the wind! All quite unsettling on the more balancey moves. :shock:

  • Slightly under-dressed in shorts, and wearing every layer I had with me (including my wind-proof) on top to help shelter from the westerly gales. A couple of powerful rain downpours can be seen in the background racing towards us! After descending from this climb we found a cave at the cliff base, largely sheltered from the westerly wind driven horizontal rain, to shelter from this one as few minutes after this photo was taken.

  • Trying to decode the guidebooks descriptions of the classic climbs at Scugdale. Amusingly Scugdale is described in the Wired guidebook as "the Stanage of the North Yorkshire". I don't think it quite reaches those heights - physically or otherwise - but it is a great place! :-D

North York Moors: Escaping the rain in the Lakes

Sunday, 25th May 2025

The bank-holiday weather forecast for the Lakes was pretty poor – continuous rain! So Laetitia spent some time looking around the country to see if anywhere else offered anything more appealing and discovered that the north-east was set to offer full sun all day Sunday, and sunshine and showers on Monday…

We packed the van and headed off.

Ever since I worked on the Wired guidebook, Northern Rock, I’d been thinking of making a visit to Scugdale. Having never been climbing in this area the guidebook’s introduction to Scugdale reads, “Some call Scugdale the Stanage of North Yorkshire.” so it had set a pretty high expectation. Scugdale isn’t Stanage. But it is a fantastic spot with a sunny aspect, great rock (albeit quite diminutive compared to Stanage) and climbing, and a brilliant outlook.

While it was superbly sunny (which lured me in to thinking my shorts were enough clothing) it was mega windy. Strong squalls, complete with rain downpours, were being driven in from the west and neatly funnelled up the Scugdale valley. Looking west towards home you could see the mini-storms approaching – and they were travelling fast, just a few minutes after a downpour appeared it was overhead, and with the gale-force winds the rain preceded them. We had to dive for cover in caves at the cliff base!

Trying to decode the guidebooks descriptions of the classic climbs at Scugdale. Amusingly Scugdale is described in the Wired guidebook as “the Stanage of North Yorkshire”. I don’t think it quite reaches those heights – physically or otherwise – but it is a great place! 😀
This climb near the arete of one the sandstone towers at Scugdale was totally exposed to gales from the west, which at times were ferocious, so much so that at several points I was physically moved by the force of the wind! All quite unsettling on the more balancey moves. 😯
Slightly under-dressed in shorts, and wearing every layer I had with me (including my wind-proof) on top to help shelter from the westerly gales. A couple of powerful rain downpours can be seen in the background racing towards us! After descending from this climb we found a cave at the cliff base, largely sheltered from the westerly wind driven horizontal rain, to shelter from this one as few minutes after this photo was taken.

After the climbing we headed out to Whitby…

We’d escaped the forecasted continuous rain of the Lakes, but it wasn’t entirely dry in the east – we had several dramatic downpours between bright sunshine, which of course created some amazing rainbows…
A ‘selfie’ taken from Whitby pier back toward the abbey and town

And after seeing the sights of Whitby, including the abbey and its 199 steps (ascended by non other than Dracula!) we made our way to a fantastic spot on the moors in the van, with an expansive view out over the North Sea, for a bit of van-life, dinner, and a cheeky beer or two. 😉

We were hopeful that Monday’s weather might afford us a chance to climb. But alas it was quite showery. But we made full use of the location and visited the delightful Robin Hood’s Bay. The village and its ‘streets’, the beach, and the cliffs rich in fossils are all incredibly interesting to explore …

The “Streets” in Robin Hood’s Bay not very vehicle friendly!

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