The Little Yellow Cottage

22/05/2026

Morning Folks, it's looking like a fantastic weekend, and the cottage has just become available at the last minute. I don't promote it too much on here, but this weekend is looking so good.

Here's the link if you fancy a three-bedroom cottage that oozes character to enjoy the sunshine.

Please choose your dates by clicking on the start date and then click on the end date in the calendar. The system will calculate the number of nights and present you with the cost including a cleaning charge of £50. This charge is per stay not per night. Please fill in all of the fields ... Read mo...

19/05/2026

04/05/2026

15/04/2026

Lovely walk from Runswick Bay to Hinderwell via The Cleveland Way past Port Mulgrave. Bus from Whitby to Runswick Bay and back from Hinderwell. Enjoy. Lou and George x

20/03/2026

Mulgrave Castle

Lou suggested a walk in the woods in the Mulgrave estate to the castle with her niece, who’s on a short break from Oz to see her mum. I think it’s an ideal time for Lou to share her childhood adventures with her niece, who can share them with her family. We all tend to leave these things until it’s too late

Mulgrave Castle is a 13th C stone structure. It has been in and out of favour at various times, including the English Civil War. However, it pales into insignificance when I’m told of the idyllic childhood of my dear belle. She regales us with tales of derring-do, Cowboys and Injuns (SIC), skinny-dipping, and walking donkeys on the beach. Actually, the skinny dipping may have been an embellishment, but you get the drift. Playing cowboys and injuns in these woods and beautiful clearings with the added bonus of a castle must have been a real Swallows and Amazons time, and I’m full of envy.

I consider my childhood of playing in the fields around my home and getting up to mischief in the guard vans of goods trains in sidings, but they pale into insignificance when Lou tells us she had a centuries-old castle in which to play and dream.

This walk is relatively easy on good tracks most of the time, but you do need to be aware of the return leg, which follows the Sandsend Beck. It doesn’t have any marked path on the OS map, but I’ve tracked it on Hiiker and included a screenshot of the OS Map with the tracing for you to use. Bear in mind it’s at your own risk.

The walk is under five miles and is open only on Wednesdays and weekends. It is also completely closed during May to give the birds and other animals a sporting chance during the breeding season.

Enjoy the wonderful woods and flora and see how many species of beasties you can spot. We were lucky enough to see a whole herd of deer.

Enjoy the snaps.

Love L and G xx

16/03/2026

A walk to the foghorn looping back via the stones of Robin Hood and Little John

We needed to go to The Little Yellow Cottage to make a list of maintenance objectives through the spring.

We finished in record time, so we decided on the walk to The foghorn station, about 3 miles along the coast, following the coastal path at the tops of the cliffs.

What a great decision.

Lou is well on board, so we set off in glorious sunshine, making our way up onto Eastcliffe and past the Abbey.

We joined the cliff path behind the brewery. It’s quite busy but certainly not unpleasant. The cliffs here are 200 to 300 feet high, and there are small cuts that are evidence of the cliff erosion that has taken place over the winter. Most of them are bound by no more than a heavy string and temporary wooden poles. They wouldn’t protect you if you fell into the scree, but they serve as a reasonable, visible safeguard; however, there are numerous stark reminders in the form of tiny plaques dedicated to the unknown and unfortunate individuals who left this life in accidents or in a sad moment of mental darkness. I mention these only as a warning if you have a dog or children. The walk is perfectly safe, just take a sensible approach.

Today is wall-to-wall sunshine, and the air is so clear we can see many miles out to sea where there are numerous ships of all types making their way to or from the various commercial ports that enable our country to tick.

As we make our way up the hill to the foghorn station, the size of the trumpet elements becomes clear, and I can remember the low drone that used to make the fog even more sinister. It was nicknamed the Hawsker Bull and if you ever heard that drone, you’d understand immediately. It was decommissioned by Trinity House in 1987 as GPS and radar became more prevalent in even the smallest vessels.

Another 200 metres or so, and we pass the Ling Hill lighthouse, which is now automated but still in use, and monitored by Trinity House. The keeper’s cottages are now holiday lets, and it all looks in good order as we gaze over the wall.

As we exit the trail through a gate and turn right to make our way along Ling Hill farm where a finger post directs us towards Beacon Hill.

The views of Whitby, the Abbey and the odd steeple that mark the villages around this part of the coast are spectacular, and we stop several times to admire the views.

We turn right at Whitby Laithes Farm onto a farm track to Manor House Farm, then do a little dog leg, turning right on the main road and the left back onto farmland.

This is the part of the loop where we’re looking for two stones, where legend tells us Robin Hood and Little John had an archery competition to see who could shoot an arrow the furthest. The two stones are easy to see in the hedge. The one this side of the hedge denotes Little John Field, and the one on the far side of the hedge denotes Robin Hood Field. It would appear to me that Little John won.

The rest of the walk leads us to the edge of the industrial estate and past Botham’s Cafe (well worth a visit) then along the main road back to the harbour.

This walk is easy if you’re a walker but moderate if you’re not and it’s just short of six miles.

Enjoy the snaps.

Love L and G xx

01/02/2026

Fabulous. Thank you Northern Perspectives. G x

Whitby breakwaters doing exactly what they were built for - standing there like two stubborn arms, holding the line while the North Sea throws a strop.

From up here you can really see the whole setup: the harbour tucked safely behind, the river pushing out in a brown swirl, and the sea on the other side fizzing white with energy. It’s one of those views that reminds you why ports like this ever worked in the first place - engineering, local know-how, and a healthy amount of “aye, that’ll do”.

And up on the headland, Whitby Abbey still watches over the lot like it always has, while the town carries on below - fishing boats, gulls, and the sort of weather that keeps you humble.

05/12/2025

Hi Folks. Here’s your annual Little Yellow Cottage memory of Christmas’ past. Love G xx

The Little Ice Age In the middle of the 1700s, Church Street was developing apace and soon it would become my turn to be built. It was towards the end of what is now referred to as “The Little Ice Age”. The winters had been viciously cold and, in this region, white with heavy snow ... Read more