(Kate) From its pebbled beaches and rugged cliffs to its seaside towns and fish and chips, I love the British Coast.

Ah, look at that!

Beautiful, beautiful.

The birds, the flowers, and most of all, the sea.

♪ So across this series I'm taking a journey along some of the most beautiful walks in the world.

♪ These footpaths, gloriously uncluttered.

I'll be meeting the people who live... (man) So if they're alive and big enough, it goes into that basket.

(Kate) ...and work along them... -Wow!

-Oh, look!

(Rob) Both the sunshine and the dolphins were owed a special.

(Kate) ...as I discover paths I've never walked before...

It is a kind of sci-fi set.

-It is.

-You don't think England.

-No.

-...and reveal the secrets of ones I know well.

(Will) That's a dinosaur's footprint.

(Kate) No, it can't be!

(Will) Yeah, toe here.

-Oh, you are right!

-Another toe.

Another toe there.

♪ (Kate) It is heaven.

If I didn't have so far to walk, I'd just sit on here all day.

(chuckling) (lively music) Today I'm walking along some of the highest cliffs in England...

I'm quite glad it's not wet.

It's quite a steep descent.

...where heavy industry and heavy storms have left their mark.

Eight hundred shipwrecks that year recorded.

-Eight hundred?

-Eight hundred, just over.

(Kate) And an emergency rescue at sea... (Rob) Man overboard!

(Kate) ...ends with breathtaking results.

Oh, wow!

There are bottlenose dolphins.

And it's amazing.

(chuckling) ♪ (gulls cawing) (pleasant music) ♪ I'm on the East Yorkshire Coast, where the moors meet the sea.

♪ And I'm on the top of Boulby Cliff, which is very high, indeed.

It's actually the highest cliff on the East Coast of England.

The sea is 660 feet.

That's, you know, well over 200 meters below me down there.

In fact, I am above the gulls.

(gulls cawing) I feel like queen of the world up here.

And my walk is gonna follow this amazing route.

It's called the Cleveland Way, which actually, Cleveland is a sort of derivation of "cliff land."

So I am gonna be doing a clifftop walk, with the odd dip down and haul up, along to, just in the distance there, there is a place called Staithes, which apparently is absolutely stunning.

And I'm gonna carry on around that headland and over, down into Whitby, home of fish and chips and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Now there's a combination you wouldn't expect.

(regal music) Starting at this coast's highest point, my 13-mile walk takes me to Staithes, the fishing village which was once home to the 18th century explorer Captain Cook.

From there I'll visit the once bustling industrial harbor, Port Mulgrave, before following the Cleveland Way to the sheltered resort of Runswick Bay.

A mile further on is Kettleness, a clifftop hamlet rebuilt in the 19th century, where I'll search for gems, before dropping down to a vast lunar landscape at Sandsend.

The final leg of my walk ends in the historic whaling and fishing port of Whitby, where Cook set sail with the merchant navy and where I'll end up at its most iconic landmark, Whitby Abbey.

♪ (gulls cawing) (pleasant music) ♪ Beneath me I can hear the cliff faces bustling with birdlife... (squawking) ...while the clifftops are ripe with late summer fruit, like rosehips and brambles heavy with blackberries.

♪ The bushes are just laden.

Oh, there's a really good one.

♪ Oh.

♪ Nothing beats a blackberry.

♪ (peppy music) (gulls cawing) Up ahead is my first port of call, once home to one of North Yorkshire's largest fishing fleets, and where 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook briefly lived in one of these fisherman's cottages on the harborfront whilst working as a shopboy, aged 16.

But life on dry land didn't suit the future naval captain, and so he left for my final destination today, Whitby, to pursue a life at sea.

(birds cawing) This is Staithes, and what's remarkable about it is, from this vantage point at least, it looks unchanged from the way it's described in this guidebook, and it was written in 1892, um, and it describes the village like this.

"You may see the village of Staithes now much as James Cook saw it.

A red-tiled place nestled in the hollow, grouped about a steep, narrow street, which leads down to the staithe, or landing place, where the brown, laborious fisherfolk stand, smoking, talking, and looking out to sea or gazing at their cobles--" that's the name for the boats, "...drawn up in rows upon the beach, just as for generations their ancestors have done, and as if fishing were the idlest craft that any man can follow."

I'm not sure that any fisherman would quite like that description, but anyway, it is absolutely beautiful.

(birds cawing) I need to get down there.

(soft guitar music) ♪ And like most fishing villages nestled amongst these cliffs, Staithes wasn't built with cars in mind.

Morning, mutt.

(barking) There's all these incredibly narrow, little alleys in between the houses everywhere.

Look at that one.

Dog Loup.

(barking) It's tiny.

Can I get through it?

Can you get through it?

Right, come on, let's try.

You have to squeeze your shoulders in.

(quirky music) -Ah!

-I'm stuck!

(chuckling) (Kate) Oh, it's 'cause you're so broad-shouldered.

There we go.

♪ (gulls cawing) I know it's a daft thing to say, 'cause I have seen a lot of harbors at low tide, but it always strikes me when you see the boats beached on the sand like that, that they are waiting for a miracle that may or may not happen and that the water will come back and float them again.

(peppy music) The days of a fishing fleet may be gone, but at this time of year, the birdlife on the cliffs is at its busiest.

(squawking) ♪ Always feel when you're approaching a seabird colony, it's like walking into the set of a soap opera.

(Richard) Exactly, yeah.

♪ (Kate) Local wildlife guide Richard has been an avid birdwatcher since he was a boy.

Morning, lovelies.

(birds cawing) Aw.

So, Richard, let's start with a little bit of myth busting, because there are lots of big, white, noisy birds all along this coast and they tend to get lumped under one name, seagull, but actually there is no such thing as a seagull, -is there?

-No, it doesn't exist.

They're all gulls, and these gulls, they're kittiwakes, and kittiwake comes from the call that we can hear because it exactly sounds like, "Kittiwake."

(Kate) "Kittiwake, kittiwake, kittiwake."

(gulls cawing) These noisy, little gulls spend most of their lives thousands of miles away and out at sea.

During our long winter months, they sleep and feed on the ocean before returning to dry land each spring.

And when they come back, is it just for breeding?

(Richard) Yes, they need cliffs, ledges that they can build their nest on.

And when the chicks fledge, they'll spend the first few weeks of their life familiarizing themselves with this particular cliff, and then next year the chicks will almost certainly come back and hopefully start a new nest.

(Kate) That is extraordinary.

They can find their way back to this exact spot... -It is an amazing... -...when it comes to -breeding again.

-...achievement considering where they're going to be in the winter.

(Kate) Yeah.

(uplifting music) ♪ By the end of the summer, do you have a really big crick in your neck?

(chuckling) (Richard) Yes, yeah, absolutely.

(birds cawing) (adventurous music) (Kate) Coming up: Let's see how this is gonna work.

I drop down...

It's quite a steep descent.

...to a secret seaside community... What a spot.

It's wonderful.

(Rob) Man overboard!

(Kate) ...before speeding across the waves on a rescue.

(sloshing) -He's aim on the nose!

-He's got good eyesight, I'll give him that!

(engine whirring) (peppy music) ♪ I'm in North Yorkshire walking along some of England's highest cliffs... ♪ ...enjoying breathtaking views across the North Sea.

♪ But before I continue on my way, I'm going to explore the beach below, which I've been told contains some really unusual buildings.

♪ (gull cawing) I've gone very slightly off-piste, but sometimes you see these little footpaths that lead down to these entrancing-looking bays and you can't resist.

(wind whooshing) Ah, look at that!

This is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

(gulls cawing) However, you do always have to think that, when you're going down, you have always got to come up again.

But it'll be worth it!

(peppy music) This idyllic-looking bay is Port Mulgrave, once at the heart of the local mining industry.

From there I'll continue round the cliffs to another unspoilt beauty spot: the resort of Runswick Bay.

(gulls cawing) (chuckling) Right.

A rope to get me down.

Okay, let's see how this is gonna work.

(whimsical music) ♪ I'm quite glad it's not wet.

It's quite a steep descent.

♪ Careful.

(chuckling) (giggling) Gonna be fun coming up.

(birds cawing) It's just getting steeper and steeper and steeper.

(rustling) ♪ Right, I think I made it.

(quirky music) What's so extraordinary is that there are some quite elaborate structures down here.

♪ It's wonderful.

Oh, it's like my childhood dream.

♪ Feels like a little cabin on a hidden cove.

♪ Actually, I haven't grown out of it, to be honest.

♪ This collection of ramshackle huts, made from driftwood and debris, were built by the local fishermen who still use the traditional boats called cobles, with their high bows designed to keep them afloat in stormy seas.

(waves crashing) There's also the remains of a large port here, built to support a long-gone local industry.

-Hi, Kate.

-Morning, morning!

This is amazing, this place.

Local archaeologist Nick is going to tell me all about it.

(Nick) It's brilliant, there's so much history here -down on the foreshore.

-It feels like the place that there would have been a port.

(Nick) This is a port, it's named Port Mulgrave, and in the mid-19th century, an ironstone mine was operating very close by... -Okay.

-...and they set up a port here, and we can see some of the remains of that here.

-Yeah.

-The ironstone came from a tunnel underground, which you can see -poking out over there.

-Oh, that in the green there?

(Nick) Yeah, that's it, that's it, still there, just blocked up to stop you wandering in and getting lost, but that will come out, uh, a mile away.

-That's an ironstone mine.

-Really?

Might've been a lot easier than coming down that hill with the rope, but anyway.

So ironstone is literally what it sounds like?

A stone that is full of iron?

-That's exactly it, yeah.

-Right.

(Nick) It's not as good quality as iron ore, but it's-- but it's very plentiful.

-Okay.

-There's a lot around here.

So, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, there was an awful lot of ironstone mining going on here.

(contemplative music) (Kate) Mining was such big business that in 1857 the harbor was built for cargo ships to dock and load before ferrying the ore to the Tyneside shipyards.

It was eventually demolished at the onset of World War II for fear of a Nazi invasion by sea.

But this stretch of coast has always been dangerous, even without the threat of attack.

(adventurous music) ♪ One such disaster happened in 1914 when the World War I hospital ship Rohilla ran aground just off Whitby Harbor.

Six lifeboats battled for three days to save the crew from heavy seas.

But 83 lives were lost to the waves.

(waves crashing) This coast is infamous, isn't it?

(Nick) That's absolutely right.

Unfortunately there were a lot of shipwrecks here -at one point.

-I mean, when you say, "A lot--" (Nick) Well, I think, uh, 1869 was the year, in that year, just the hundred miles from River Tees to Spurn Point... -Yeah.

-...800 shipwrecks that year recorded.

-Eight hundred?

-Eight hundred, just over, -I think, yeah.

-That--I mean, that's-- I'm just trying to--I'm just trying to work that out.

-That's like three a day.

-It's--it's an immense amount... -Just on this stretch of coast?

-...of lost shipping, yeah.

(Kate) So were there wrecks everywhere?

(Nick) There's a huge amount of wrecks off of North Yorkshire, about 50,000 I think.

(chuckling) -50,000 wrecks?

-Yeah, so-- A lot of those are gonna be First World War losses.

-Yeah.

-Some Second World War losses.

-Yeah.

-And obviously earlier things, but a lot of it is 19th century industry.

Most wrecks were obviously caused by the weather.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And, uh, you can get some very terrible storms here.

(waves washing ashore) (soft guitar music) ♪ (Kate) Back on top of the cliffs, I'm continuing on to my next rendezvous, one of this coast's unspoilt beauty spots, and at over a mile long, one of its most scenic: Runswick Bay.

♪ I've just descended to this very, very picture-postcard, pretty place.

And even in 1862 they were extolling its virtues.

"One of the most beautiful bays on the Yorkshire Coast, disclosing a delightful broken country of field, stream, and wood, backed by the fine contours of lofty hills between its western cliff and the bold, curiously peaked headland of Kettleness, which projects far out into the sea on the east."

Just a few weeks ago, one of our national newspapers voted this the most beautiful beach in Britain.

It is very, very pretty.

(peppy music) These sheltered waters might be calm now, but when the wind gets up, they can be just as dangerous as the open seas.

♪ A lifeboat has been stationed here since 1938 for just such an eventuality.

Hello, is there a Rob down here?

♪ And I've heard the crew are putting their newest rescue boat through its paces today.

-Hiya, Kate.

-Are you Rob?

(Rob) How are you--I am, indeed, yeah, how are you?

-Nice to see you, how are you?

-Good, thank you, Kate.

(Kate) So I mean, when you look out here today... -Mm.

-...I mean, apart from it being quite jaw-droppingly beautiful-- I mean, I have a pretty office at home, but yours, I'll tell you what, takes the biscuit, doesn't it?

(Rob) It don't get any better, does it, yeah.

(Kate) But it also looks beautifully safe.

You know, you've got this amazing sort of sheltered bay.

(Rob) It is a very safe bay, but things can change very quickly.

Could be a riptide, it could be the wind blowing up.

We get a lot of people cut off by the tide, especially at Kettleness Point.

So we train all summer, we train all winter, and it's just for those events where it's maybe a bit more serious.

(Kate) Yeah, you know what I'm gonna ask you, don't you?

(Rob) I've got a good idea, Kate, yeah.

You wanna come out for a spin, is that what you want?

(Kate) I do, 'cause that boat looks, apart from-- I know I shouldn't say this, but it does look really fun.

(Rob) Believe me, it is fun, so if you were-- you wanna get some kit on, we'll--we'll go out for a spin.

(Kate) That would be fantastic, thank you so much, Rob.

(whimsical music) ♪ (Rob) Are you okay getting a little bit wet?

-Do you wanna go on the boat--?

-I'm probably gonna get quite wet, aren't I?

(Rob) There's no dignified way of doing it.

(Kate) Okay, fantastic.

♪ Oh, it's quite posh in here, isn't it?

-At times.

-Woo-hoo!

(Rob) I've spotted things there.

♪ (engine whirring) (Kate) So, Rob, tell me about the exercise today.

What--what are you doing?

(Rob) Man overboard in a kayak rescue.

-Okay.

-Obviously the aim of the exercise is to get to the casualty first, check for injuries, get him onboard or her onboard, and then safely back to shore.

(Kate) So if this was a real situation, how quickly can you scramble to be here?

(Rob) To be on call, you've gotta be within 10 minutes -of the boathouse.

-Wow, okay.

-So you gotta be quite local.

-Yeah.

(Rob) Um, we're launching in five, six minutes.

-That's really impressive.

-Yeah.

(Kate) During the busy summer months, the crew, who are all local volunteers, can be called out every week.

(Rob) Man overboard!

(peppy music) Sparky's aim on the nose!

-He's got him.

-Yeah.

He's got good eyesight, I'll give him that.

(engine whirring) -Portside, please.

-Portside, Spark.

-So this is portside, isn't it?

-Left, yeah.

We're taking quite a wide turnaround.

-Yeah.

-It's important to get there first time, 'cause you might not get a second time.

Right, little gap between you two.

(indistinct shouting) Best would be to hike him back in.

-So on three.

One, two, three.

-Yeah.

(grunting) Crikey, what does he have for lunch?

Does he have good fish and chips around here?

(laughter) Coming up: I discover a royal gemstone in crumbling cliffs... (Imogen) So the cliffs are going to collapse.

(Kate) Can hear it all around us actually.

(Imogen) It sounds like the rain.

(Kate) ...walk across an alien landscape...

This is just extraordinary.

Oh, my goodness, look!

...and a family of dolphins come out to play.

This is the thing that I love about wildlife.

(peppy music) ♪ I'm halfway into my 13-mile clifftop walk in North Yorkshire... ♪ ...along a stretch of coast renowned for its stormy seas and shipwrecks... ♪ ...where my final destination is considered to be one of the jewels of the northeast: ♪ The historic fishing port of Whitby.

♪ And having dropped down to the popular resort of Runswick Bay... (engine whirring) ...I found myself involved in an emergency training exercise.

-There you go, he's still alive.

-Oh, he's still alive.

(engine puttering) Then just as we're heading back to shore... Oh, look, oh, my goodness!

(adventurous music) ♪ Looks like two adults and a calf.

It does, yeah.

-Again.

-Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Oh, my goodness, look!

-Oh!

♪ -There's two more over there.

-Oh yeah.

♪ -Ah.

-Wow.

-Oh, look.

-Rare to see.

(Kate) This is the thing that I love about wildlife, because there are bottlenose dolphins in the bay and we're seeing them and it's amazing.

Oh, wow!

One breached just over there.

-Beautiful.

-Bottlenose dolphins are found all around the British Coast and are the biggest of their kind in the world, helping them cope with our chilly waters.

-There you go, hey!

-They're really playing over there now.

They grow up to four meters long, can live for 50 years, and are among the most sociable and playful of all dolphin species.

♪ Oh, gannet circling overhead.

I'm wondering whether they've come over a shoal of fish or something like that.

They're definitely fishing.

Do you see them often up here?

-Quite--quite a few times, yeah.

-Yeah?

(Rob) Yeah, yeah, they're regular visitors.

Whoa, beauty.

(Kate) Ah, that is amazing.

♪ Ah, that was such a treat.

-Fabulous.

-And thank you for all you do, because, you know, knowing that people like you who volunteer your time are up and down our coast keeping us safe is, um, a very good feeling, indeed.

(Rob) Thank you.

(cheerful music) (Kate) My next stop is just around the bay where I'll search for a unique gemstone at Kettleness Point.

And then I'll follow a stretch of heavily mined coastline down to Sandsend.

From there my clifftop path leads me into the historic shipping and fishing port of Whitby via one of its twin harbor piers.

♪ (peppy music) (gulls cawing) These days it's easy to take this sort of walk for granted, but when the Cleveland Way opened in 1969, it was only the second national trail in England and Wales.

Today there are 15, and in 2012, Wales became the first country in the world to open a path running the full length of its coastline.

In 2021, England hopes to follow suit with the 2,800-mile-long England Coast Path.

It was the Marine Bill in 2009 that, uh, set out the concept of opening all of our coast to being public access.

The Welsh Coast was the first one to complete it, so all the way from Chepstow right the way round to Llandudno.

Um, but now, I think that whole coast path is now complete and you can also walk all of England's coastline.

So maybe I should just keep going.

What do ya think?

(rustling) (adventurous music) ♪ Up ahead is Kettleness Point.

Two hundred years ago, it was where the village of Kettleness sat.

It was a time when mining dominated the coast, with thousands of tons of shale quarried from these cliffs every year.

♪ Then in 1829, The land suddenly gave way and Kettleness slid into the sea, only to be rebuilt safely on the clifftop, where it still stands today.

♪ (pleasant music) ♪ (birds chirping) My next rendezvous is the other side of the point, down on the beach.

♪ -Hello, Imogen.

-Hi, Kate, -it's nice to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you, too.

(waves crashing) Imogen's a third-generation jeweler, specializing in jet, a unique local gemstone which she's brought along to show me.

Tell me about jet because it's something that I associate with bejeweled Victorian ladies.

-You're absolutely right.

-Sort of heavy, heavy necklaces.

-Funereal jewelry.

-Funereal jewelry.

-Very heavily carved.

-Exactly, and it-- because famously it is black.

(Imogen) It is, and the reason why we associate it with the Victorians is because Queen Victoria wore jet -way before her husband died.

-Right.

(Imogen) But when she went into mourning, she made a declaration that jet was now the mourning stone of the British Empire.

(peppy music) (Kate) Jewelry made from jet became hugely fashionable during Victoria's reign.

It's said that the number of jet workshops grew to 200 in Whitby alone just to keep up with demand for this inky, black gemstone.

Oh, wow.

(Imogen) So some of these bits have been polished, but some of them are the natural.

So this is a piece of what we call seam jet.

This is jet that's knocked straight out of the cliffs by coastal erosion, which is how it's found today.

-Right.

-And we can see either side we have this gray shale which is what the cliffs are composed of.

-Yeah.

-But if we look carefully, you can see that it's all jet in the middle.

(Kate) So it really is that kind of impenetrable dark.

-Yes.

-I mean, you can see why people thought it might've had magic properties -or something like that.

-You can.

This is probably my favorite piece.

You can see that it's a tree knot.

-Yeah.

-And this was found by my granddad before I was born, and he found it in two pieces about 600 yards apart, but when you put them together, they click together and you have a whole preserved tree knot, which is really incredible.

(whimsical music) (Kate) The tree knot in question is the remains of a fossilized monkey puzzle tree, which is how jet was formed 180 million years ago.

These Jurassic cliffs around Whitby during Queen Victoria's reign would've been a hive of activity as miners searched for seams of this elusive, semi-precious gemstone.

(Imogen) So you can see here at the top, there's, uh, what we call a ceiling, and-- -So is that that thick layer... -The thick bit, yes.

-...of rock?

-Then underneath that is where they've excavated.

And can you see the really deep bit -at the back of the cliff?

-Yes, yeah.

(Imogen) So that is where the seam has run, but because the cliffs are shale, it's extremely dangerous because you can see all of this fresh shale fall.

(Kate) Well, I can hear it all around us actually.

(Imogen) So the cliffs are prone to collapse.

-You can see.

-Oh, it's coming down here.

-It sounds like the rain.

-Yeah.

(Imogen) In the Victorian era, being a jet miner was extremely dangerous.

They would either drop you over the side of a cliff on a rope and get you to chip out an exposed seam, or later on they decided to start blowing holes in the cliff with dynamite.

-Oh, my goodness.

-So it was-- it was a dangerous occupation to have.

-Yeah.

-Nowadays we don't go in -to these holes.

-Right, right.

You basically wait for nature to reveal it... -Yes.

-...for you.

(Imogen) We have some really big rockfalls, so that's where the big slabs of jet tend to be, and quite often you can see people turning the boulders over to see if there's any slabs of jet caught underneath, which is incredible if you think about it.

(Kate) It is really incredible and for such a beautiful thing.

-Yes, a little jewel.

-Right now you have given me a new obsession.

-Thanks, Imogen.

-No problem.

(chuckling) (wondrous music) ♪ (Kate) While jet mining boomed during Queen Victoria's reign, it was nothing compared to the scale of mining for shale, used to produce a fixing agent for clothing dyes called alum.

The shale was sourced here for nearly two centuries.

Everywhere you look, it's left its indelible mark on the land.

♪ Wow.

That's bizarre.

♪ Ha, look at that.

Sort of looks like the moon.

(gulls cawing) This is the most bizarre landscape.

We got all the sort of green cliffs and the flowers, the heathers all out, and then suddenly there's this great bank of shale.

So this sort of extraordinary outcrop is apparently called Sandsend Ness.

(dramatic music) Feel a little bit nervous... ♪ ...given how fragile I saw that the shale cliffs were just where we were looking for the jet.

Wouldn't want to go too close to the edge.

And there it just goes, "Chom!"

Hundreds of feet down into the sea.

♪ I've suddenly had a thought about the Victorian jet miners being lowered off cliffs to get the jet.

Oh, it must've been terrifying.

♪ Oh, quite a good view of Whitby.

So that's where I'm going to end up.

That building on the skyline there, that's Whitby Abbey.

Right, can't stand about.

Got miles to walk.

(peppy music) ♪ The final leg of my walk stretches out ahead of me.

♪ Just three more miles to the ancient port of Whitby, with its distinctive twin harbor piers and impressive abbey ruins perched high above the town, and where, since the Bronze Age, a settlement has overlooked the mouth of the River Esk.

♪ This was where Captain Cook began his life at sea in the merchant navy, before going on to become one of history's greatest naval explorers.

Not bad for one of eight children born to a farm laborer in 1728.

By the time he was killed, aged 50, on his third voyage around the world, he'd mapped thousands of miles of uncharted lands, including New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef.

Whitby was also where all four of his research ships were built and originally sailed from.

♪ Today the town is still at the heart of the local fishing industry.

♪ And on my way along I'm meeting Peter, a skipper who hails from a long line of fishermen, which dates back to his great-grandfather, and who remembers the days when the herring fishermen ruled the waves.

♪ (gulls cawing) (Peter) The herring boats should be row after row after row.

You could go across the harbor virtually onboard.

-Really?

-There'd be 50 visiting boats, 50, plus 20 local.

The harbor was jam-packed.

And all along here it was mountains and mountains of fish boxes to put the herrings in.

(Kate) So what age were you when you started sort of being a professional fisherman, -if you'd like?

-Fifteen.

-Fifteen?

-I left school on July 24th on a Friday afternoon at 4:00 and I started fishing at 6:00.

So-- (Kate) I love that!

(Peter) But it was hard as a youngster.

You'd be on your feet 36 hours.

There's very, very little rest at sea.

You know, many a time you just get laid in your bunk, and ah, the-- the sensation of being-- being able to close your eyes... -Yeah.

-...and then bang, you come fast on the seabed, and within 30 seconds, you are to be fully suited up with the oilskins on and back out on a raging deck on a winter's night.

(pleasant music) ♪ (Kate) I mean, I've heard and seen evidence of how difficult this coast is.

Were there ever times that you were properly scared at sea?

(Peter) Oh yeah, when I had my own boat.

I know we're out at (indistinct) which is about 190 mile off, and all the water going round the engine was pumping into the boat.

When the vessel rolled to the port, water came up round my waist, bilge water.

And also, with rolling to port, ice cold saltwater was coming at me, too.

(Kate) And you wonder why young people today don't want to do this, Peter.

(Peter) Yeah, well.

It wasn't a very nice night, at least.

(Kate) And I'm imagining your idea of not a nice night and my idea of not a nice night are quite different.

(Peter) Well, maybe so, but it's part of the job.

(Kate) I mean, now can you imagine ever have doing anything else?

Do you sit here and think, "Oh, I wish I hadn't been -a fisherman"?

-No, I have-- I have no regrets, I would do it all again.

(Kate) Well, you know what, I think you've got enough energy, you probably could.

(chuckling) (Peter) Yeah.

(engine puttering) Oh, my goodness.

This place is amazing.

Coming up: I meet a local artist leaving her mark on Whitby... (Emma) Just using wire and my hands, and a mallet sometimes when I get angry with it.

(laughing) (Kate) ...before one last climb to my final destination.

This unbelievably atmospheric and beautiful ruin of Whitby Abbey, and it really is a staggeringly beautiful bit of Yorkshire's coast.

(peppy music) ♪ I'm reaching the end of my Yorkshire clifftop walk, having followed the Cleveland Way south to the ancient port of Whitby.

♪ Like many coastal communities, it's braved wild weather and furious waves to rely on the sea for its livelihood down through the centuries.

(waves crashing) ♪ The town is now honoring and celebrating its fishing heritage with a sculpture trail, and as you wander through Whitby's streets and alleyways, you come across them.

Just lovely!

Like this fishwife selling the catch of the day from her stall.

♪ Before I head to the East Cliff and Whitby Abbey, I've arranged to meet the local artist behind them.

♪ Oh, my goodness!

Emma, this place is amazing.

So I just walked past your sculpture in town, but I had no idea you did all this as well.

-Yep.

-Now I actually have a cockerel called Ernesto who looks a bit like that, not quite as big.

(Emma) Was made for Chelsea Flower Show.

-Really?

-Yeah.

(Kate) So what's this one you're do-- are you working on this one right now?

(Emma) Yeah, so this is a sculpture that will go with the fishwife that you've just seen in the town center, and the idea is that it's part of the sculpture trail.

(Kate) So is this gonna be a whole kind of walking route around the town, is that the plan?

(Emma) Yeah, it is, the seven sculptures, and we're celebrating Whitby's fishing heritage.

(Kate) So what's this one gonna be?

-So this is net mending.

-Right.

(Emma) So we're going to have a gentleman with his wellies on and a fishing smock on, and he's going to use this needle... -Right.

-...to mend this fishing net.

-Yeah.

-I mean, it--you-- you say that, and I mean, I can see you've got the net here.

-Yep.

-But I can't envisage how you get from that to something intricate and detailed.

Just--I mean, are you just using wire?

(Emma) Yeah, just using wire and my hands, yep, and a mallet sometimes when I get angry with it.

(chuckling) (Kate) I mean, looking around here, they're not just recognizable, they're the most wonderful-- that polar bear.

(chuckling) If I could get it on the back of my rucksack... -Yeah.

-...it would come home with me.

It's just--it's so magnificent.

Why did you build it?

(Emma) Well, there's a lovely story, Kate, about, um, -Captain Scoreseby Jr. -Right.

(Emma) His family actually invented the crow's nest -at the top of the ships.

-Right.

(Emma) They were whaling captains and on one of his voyages brought back a polar bear cub.

-I know and-- -And he was Whitby based, -was he?

-Yeah, but it escaped, and it ran through the streets of Whitby and, um, people were hounding it down, chasing it, and trapped in part of a wood.

And apparently Captain Scoreseby walked up to the polar bear, put his hand out, the polar bear licked his hand, and he put a lead on it and walked off with it.

-So it's just a great story.

-Oh, it's an amazing story!

(Emma) Yeah, and so that's the connection with Whitby, and I thought, "Oh wow, it'd be so great to make one."

(Kate) Emma, what a treat this has been.

(mellow music) ♪ Luckily there's no wild bears on the final push to reach the end of my walk, but that's not to say it's easy.

♪ The thing to do in Whitby, as if I haven't walked enough, is to climb 199 steps up from the harbor to the treasure that is at the top.

(cheerful music) ♪ Look at this.

♪ Ah.

Glorious views.

(bell tolling) 7:00.

♪ I'm above the hustle and bustle.

(gulls cawing) The beautiful abbey that has stood here for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Just glorious up here.

(pleasant music) ♪ Like me, pilgrims have journeyed to this abbey for over a thousand years.

♪ It was here in the 7th century that the elders calculated the dates when Easter should fall each year.

And although it's no longer a place of worship, this iconic landmark is still used by ships today as they navigate this wild coastline.

♪ To finish my walk up here on the hill, looking back over Whitby, but also looking back over this extraordinary route, it's amazing.

You know, the communities at Staithes are clinging onto the rocks between the moor and the sea and eking out a living in their little traditional boats.

There's the incredible Runswick, just been voted the most beautiful bay in Britain.

The beauty of jet and its amazing prehistoric origins.

And looking at the extraordinarily atmospheric ruins now, it's absolutely beautiful.

(gulls cawing) ♪ It really is a staggeringly beautiful bit of Yorkshire's coast.

♪ (gulls cawing) Next time: Sort of so otherworldly.

I'm exploring a rare shingle shoreline... -She's got treasure.

-...a wild estuary... Oh, look at that pup.

It is absolutely covered in mud.

...and a top secret nuclear test site in Suffolk.

I can't think of anywhere else that's like this.

(peppy music) ♪ (bright music)