The Hunmanby Beach

The cliffs at Hunmanby drop sheer to a proper working beach, all golden sand and rock pools when the tide's out. It's not the sort of place you'll find rammed with deck chairs and ice cream vans - this is honest coastline, the kind where you actually have to earn your way down. The village sits just inland from Filey, which means you're close enough to the holiday parks clustered around Primrose Valley and Reighton Sands without feeling trapped in the caravan park bubble.

What you get here is straightforward: access to a functioning beach with enough going on to keep families occupied for an afternoon. Rock pools are the real draw - proper ones, not the tourist-board version - and when the light hits right, the cliffs glow orange and red. It's the sort of place where a ten-year-old can spend two hours turning over stones without complaining, which in my book is worth gold.

Walkers find it useful too. The clifftop path offers decent views back towards Filey, and the walk down rewards you with actual seclusion compared to the main beaches. Timing matters: low tide is essential if you want to explore properly, and summer weekends do get busier than you'd expect for somewhere this quiet.

If you're based at Haven Primrose Valley or Reighton Sands - both within a mile - Hunmanby makes a solid half-day trip. Don't come expecting facilities or thrills. Come because you want a stretch of coast that feels like Yorkshire's coast actually is: a bit raw, bit exposed, and all the better for it.