Ravenscar

Ravenscar was laid out in the 1890s as a seaside resort to rival Scarborough, with roads, drains and a station. Almost nobody bought the plots, the developer went bust, and the grid of empty streets remains on the headland today, along with the Raven Hall Hotel on the site of a Georgian house.

The attractions now are natural and industrial. Grey seals haul out on the rocks below the cliffs and can be watched from the Cleveland Way. The remains of the alum works, where shale was quarried and boiled for three centuries to make a chemical for fixing dyes, are laid out on the cliff top with National Trust interpretation. And the view along the whole sweep of Robin Hood's Bay is the finest on this coast.

The Cinder Track passes through the village, so it can be reached by bike from Whitby, and the walk along the Cleveland Way from Robin Hood's Bay is about four miles.