Are You Goin' to Scarborough Fair?

I did--well I went to Scarborough last Thursday, but there was no fair. Scarborough sits on the Yorkshire coast and was another one of those seaside resort towns that began to blossom in the latter part of the 19th Century as leisure time became a reality for more of the emerging middle class. It is situated in a lovely bay that has actual sand beaches, unlike most seaside towns in England. That alone gave it some attraction, although the water is the North Sea, so it is basically freezing!

Here is a shot of the South Bay from the top of the bluff where the hotels are located.

 

 

And behind it my hotel

The whole point of coming up here was to rent a car the next day and travel on up the coast to Whitby, site of the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD and the showdown between the Irish Church which had survived for almost 300 years cut off from the rest of Christian Europe and the newly returned Roman Church. The issues ranged from how to date Easter to the structure of monasteries and the like, and in the end the Roman view won out and the Isles were re-connected with the continent again.

On the drive up to Whitby, stopped in at Robin Hood Bay--no nothing to do with the Sherwood Forest guy, just a name--for a spot of tea (well coffee really) at the Victoria Hotel.

The bay is gorgeous and very "out of the way." A great place to come if you wanted to get away from everyone for a few days, but understand that that is exactly what you would be doing, so don't whine about nothing to do but walk along the cliffs and sit by the fire in the pub.

Then it was on to Whitby. Now there have been abbeys at Whitby since the 7th century, including the home of Northumbrian poet Caedmon which was laid waste by the Vikings in the 9th century. The one that is there now lies in ruins as a result of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Henry VIII's time. So this is all that is left.

Unfortunately, from November til February the National Trust doesn't think that people should be visiting such places during the week only the weekend, so I was not able to get onto the grounds this being a Friday! So, I hopped back in the car and began a drive through the North Yorkshire moors back to Scarborough by way of Pickering. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera had given out when I took the above photo, so  you will just have to take my word for it that it was a lovely drive. I am particularly fond of the kind of blasted landscapes that you find in this area, no trees except in the shallow valleys, and only sheep and heather on the flatland. Got back to Scarborough and thought I would check out the castle there, but again, closed this time of year except on the weekends.

So, moral of the story, don't plan to sightsee during the winter months on weekdays. Off to London on Friday for a school trip to St. Paul's Cathedral designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666 and whose dome is an icon of the London skyline.