North East coast day 4 - Pennine Waterfalls

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While I was up north I took the opportunity to visit the Pennines, as I had never visited them before. I had a plan to do a bit of waterfall photography, because I can’t resist a good waterfall, and the Pennines have them in abundance, seeing as they form the main watershed in northern England, dividing east and west.

Often described as the ‘backbone of England’, the Pennine Hills form a more-or-less continuous range stretching northwards from the Peak District, into the South Pennines incorporating parts of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, through the Yorkshire Dales and North Pennines past the Cumbrian Fells up to the Tyne Gap, which separates the range from the Cheviot Hills.

I was concentrating on the North Pennines, which is classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is afforded much the same protection as a National Park. Lying just north of the Yorkshire Dales, it rivals the National Park in size and includes some of the Pennines' highest peaks and some of its most isolated and sparsely populated areas.

North Yorkshire Day 4 - A tardy sunrise & a stylish waterfall

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West Pier at sunrise.

I had planned to go to Robin Hood's Bay for sunrise, but after I turned my alarm off I promptly fell back to sleep, and by the time I woke up again, it was too late to get there. I got up anyway and headed into Whitby, and as it tuned out I didn't miss much as it was the worst sunrise of the week. Thankfully my inherent laziness had saved me some wasted effort, it's a steep path down to the beach at Robin Hood's Bay, so it would have been doubly arduous on the return journey with nothing to show for it.

Instead I drove up to the abbey while the light was still low, I was going to get a shot of it lit up, unfortunately by the time I got there the lights had been turned off, it was obviously not my morning.

North Yorkshire Day 3 - Early morning groynes & a famous village

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Up for sunrise again and it was another foggy morning, but I thought I would head 10 minutes up the coast to Sandsend and see what it was like there, and if that was shrouded in thick fog as well, at least it wouldn't take long to get back.

As it turned out, the fog thinned as I got out of Whitby and my luck was in, and although there was a lot of grey cloud in the sky, I thought I would stick around and see what's what. I parked up on a side road and took the steps down to the beach, there wasn't a great deal of it to be seen as the tide was in quite far, and continuing on it's journey inwards with some speed. 

Sandsend is home to a plentiful supply of beach groynes, most of them were covered up by the fitful waves, but there was one long line of them still available to me, so I set up and hoped for some early morning colour. I didn't have to wait long, as the sun began to approach the horizon a pink diffusion of light started to appear, and thanks to the low cloud, it covered the entire scene in a rosy blush.

North Yorkshire Day 2 - A foggy start to a soggy morning

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Woke up to thick fog and the sound of the lighthouse in Whitby Bay blaring out it's fog warning every 30 seconds, and realised it was only 3.30 in the morning. So two hours of not being able to get back to sleep later, when it was time to get up for sunrise, I was more than ready to go even though the fog was as thick as ever.

After carefully navigating through the soupy conditions I got to Staithes, and thanks to the patchiness of the fog, I found that it was pretty clear there. I carried on to Cowbar, a little hamlet that sits on a headland on the other side of the Roxby Beck, a small river that runs through Staithes, and has a great view down onto the village and harbour.

I parked outside Cowbar and after walking part way into the hamlet I took the path onto the National Trust owned headland. As I started along the path I immediately regretted not wearing my wellington boots, as the waist high grasses were covered in morning dew and it wasn't long before my lower regions were thoroughly soaked.

North Yorkshire Day 1 - Reflections in the sand & a lot of steps

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Up for sunrise on my first morning in Whitby, and at 6 o'clock it was a pretty civilised time for a change. I took a stroll down to the 18th century, Grade ll listed East and West piers that flank the entrance to Whitby's harbour, and waited to see if there were any shots to be had. 

There was a lot of cloud in the sky but it was hanging low and dark, so didn't catch any of the morning light. I got a shot of the West pier lighthouse with the sun rising behind it, but other than that I didn't get anything worthwhile.

I hung around for a while, waiting for the morning light to crawl up the coastline behind me, and drape some warm light on the buildings that line the cliff edge overlooking the harbour. Got a few images but by then the biting wind had worn me down a bit, so I was ready to head back to the apartment and get some breakfast.