Day out at Boggle Hole, near Robin Hood’s Bay (From York Press)

Day out at Boggle Hole, near Robin Hood’s Bay

12:40pm Saturday 20th August 2011 in Leisure

This is a great way to visit the East Coast’s most picturesque former fishing and smuggling village, Robin Hood’s Bay.

Instead of queuing and paying to park in the village’s cliff-top car park and then joining the throngs tramping down the steep main street, you can park for free half a mile away at Boggle Hole and walk down to the cove and then along the beach or the cliff-top path to the village.

Before you set off on your ramble, you can even stop off for a drink at a youth hostel situated in a converted cornmill just above the Boggle Hole cove. The name, incidentally, is thought to be a reference to hobgoblins, mischievous “little people” who reputedly lived in caves along the coast.

The beach at low tide is a rockpool paradise for children such as our neighbour’s son, Jacques, who came with us and, to his great excitement, found a living crab in a pool (he put it back safely later). The rocks here are also full of fossils and we found a nice one of an ammonite.

Robin Hood’s Bay, a tumble of red pantiled roofs, narrow cobbled alleyways and tiny stone cottages, was packed with visitors but we could still imagine the days when this was reputedly the busiest smuggling community on the Yorkshire coast. There was a chippie for a little sustenance, as well as numerous tearooms and a pub right above the beach.