A man-eating cave

Looking for a sense of magic? Something deeply mysterious with a thrill of danger? Possibly haunted? And free of charge? Robin Lythe’s Cave will provide everything you need – if the tide’s out. You trek down from the car park above North Landing, near Flamborough, and take the right-hand side of the cove. Watch out, in spring, for the puffins and hundreds of other seabirds nesting in the cliff or the grassy slopes at the top.Somewhere between the tidal zones you will see a cave entrance, a short clamber up the cliff. Enter. You are now in the belly of the leviathan that is Flamborough Head, the great white beast that has been gobbling up ships and smugglers for centuries. At its peak of greediness, between 1770 and 1806, it took one ship every 10 weeks on average.


The way leads through a dripping spooky antechamber into a magnificent curving hall, 15 metres high, that curves away down to a distant light, the sea. Smugglers used to haul their swag up here and stash it – French spirits and tobacco mostly. At other times, locals would find bodies washed in during storms, and one, so they say, was Robin Lythe. Maybe he was a smuggler too, and maybe he is still around. There are regular reports of a ghostly presence spotted rolling a cask of cognac up the smooth white stones.

If you time it right, with a low tide, you can explore around the cave entrance area a bit but don’t linger too long! Back on the cliff there are excellent walks south, past the lighthouse, to the long beach that curls away to Bridlington. Watch out for the short-eared owls and peregrines hunting around here. There are mysteries here too: Dane’s Dyke, a huge earthworks that no one has ever properly explained, and the weird pierced white stones on the beach – great for building an even weirder beach sculpture.