Robin Hood's Bay tumbles down a steep ravine to the sea in a jumble of red-roofed cottages, narrow passages, and hidden courtyards — one of the most photographed villages on the Yorkshire coast. The main street drops so sharply that the houses at the bottom are periodically swamped by storm waves, and several have been lost to the sea over the centuries.
The village has no connection to Robin Hood; the name is old and obscure. What it does have is a long smuggling history: the interconnected cellars, passages, and roof spaces of the old Bay Town were used to move contraband brandy and silk inland, and some of the tunnels still exist beneath the houses. The Bay Hotel at the bottom sits almost on the sea wall.
At low tide, the wave-cut rock platform below the village exposes fossils — ammonites especially — and good rock pools. The Cleveland Way and the Coast to Coast walk both end (or begin) here; arriving from St Bees in the Lake District, walkers traditionally dip their boots in the sea at the slipway.
The National Trust owns much of the old village and the surrounding cliffs. There is limited parking at the top of the village; cars are not allowed in the lower part.