With Yorkshire’s east coast beckoning, Nick Harding, partner Lin and dog Bonnie find new attractions to explore and enjoy in a familiar region
So where do Yorkshire folk go away for their holidays? They head east to… Yorkshire. Westwards lies Lancashire, which is pretty much no-go. In the opposite direction, though, lies the safety of East Yorkshire and a spread of well-known coastal resorts, plus a bit extra to entice the more adventurous.
I’m stereotyping, of course, but there’s more than a smidgen of truth here. Rather than going east, we were coming up from Somerset, and despite lots of previous experience of the likes of Scarborough and Whitby, were easily able to find plenty more to entertain us.
Hence a packed itinerary that included visits to Spurn Point, Hornsea, Bridlington’s Old Town and Saltwick Bay – all of them new to us.
Welcome, then, to Route YC (Yorkshire Coast) and our first holiday of the year. Route YC? This recent initiative is designed to make you linger on the furthest outliers of England’s largest county.
We crammed everything into a pre-Easter week. I’m sure that you can do better!
Spurn makes a point A great start to our explorations, with an instant highlight. These days, Spurn Point, the distinctive teardrop-shaped spur of land dropping out into the Humber Estuary, is a remote nature reserve. You can walk or cycle the three miles to its tip, or hop on a Unimog for a 4x4 guided trundle.
You can guess what we did, enjoying a helpful commentary from former teacher Kerrie, who explained the various roles of Spurn Point, from providing a major source of gravel and protecting the Humber during World War II – as witnessed by its two lighthouses, lots of disused buildings, lookouts, searchlight stations and gun positions, even a former railway line – through to today’s nature reserve status, and the only place in the whole UK where there’s a full-time, professional lifeboat team living in purpose-built houses. One thing hasn’t changed. It’s still very remote!
I should add, too, that there’s a fantastic visitor centre and café here, which barely gets a mention, even on the official Spurn Point website.
Campsite with en suite facilities If our first site, Withernsea Sands Holiday Park, sufficed, a treat was in store at our second, Sand le Mere, where our pitch came with its very own toilet block. En suite, they call it, a small structure housing shower, toilet and handbasin, plus heating – all for our exclusive use – as well as a handy outdoor washing-up point
