So I wasn't here yesterday. Or the day before. Or Sunday. (Not that you'd have noticed.) Instead, we were in Robin Hood's Bay, between Whitby and Scarborough on the North East coast.
I've visited Robin Hood's Bay a number of times but I do think you can only truly appreciate a place if you actually stay there. Although I've walked down the steep harbour road and admired the higgledgy-piggedly streets of row-upon-row of tiny cottages and grander houses built almost on top of each other, I've never really explored the village as much as we did on this visit.
Strolling these twisty-turny passageways you're never quite sure what you're going to find next. Another row of quirky abodes or a sudden dramatic view of the sea or harbour below. It's sad that the majority of these houses exist solely as holiday homes now, that very few locals appear to live here anymore, but it's still very easy to close your eyes and imagine yourself back in a time when this was a thriving community full of crusty old fishermen and their long-worrying wives, of smugglers and even pirates...
Robin Hood's Bay is a place steeped in legend, from its name which carries a story of Sherwood's most famous son taking a holiday on the coast to defeat French pirates... to rumours of underground smuggling tunnels that still connect these houses as the narrow pathways do above ground.
There's another thriving community at home here too - birds. Loud, fearless and territorial seagulls (we watched one chasing away a kestrel that may have been hunting chicks), sweet-songed chaffinches, and swarms of cheeky sparrows, a bird which is apparently becoming rarer in the towns and cities of the UK - perhaps because they've all moved out to the seaside.
It's a place that fires the imagination, there are stories around every corner, and those locals that do remain enjoy teasing the tourists... from the local shop that may delight in the name of Bob Killer's (ah, but is he Bob The Killer... or does he Kill Bobs?)...
...to the mysterious clifftop house with a spooky top-hatted face peering from the window one day...
...and even spookier faces the following day...
Robin Hood's Bay is a storyteller's delight. I'm certainly feeling inspired...
