This weekend Lisa was over in Yarm for my birthday and we had an excellent night out in Yarm on Friday night with people from work (except that we tried to order food at 3 minutes past 7 and they stopped serving at 7 (ok, we were in a pub) so we ended up eating at the fish and chips shop across the road). On Saturday morning there was not a cloud in the sky so we went out to walk part of the North Yorkshire coast path between Saltburn and Whitby, part of the Cleveland Way.
Halfway down the cliff we stumbled on the remains of alum mines. Since the 1600s people have been excavating and processing the aluminium sulfate (if I remember the information panel correctly) that was present there. The mines were abandoned decades ago.
We didn't want to walk the same way back that we came, so we looked for an alternative route right up the sheer rock. It was do-able in the end, but only just.
After our walk we visited the nearby market town of Guisbrough, which houses the remains of the Priory of the same name. It was built in the 12th century and demolished about 4 centuries later to build houses with the stones. Just one wall was left untouched for future generations to admire.
We then continued our way up the A19, north of Teesside, to the former mining village of Easington Colliery (home of Billy Elliott). The mines were closed over the last 10-20 years in this area, the entrance shaft to the mine remains.
The coastline is different from the North Yorkshire coastline, but very beautiful in its own right.
