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

Ugh, 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!

(guide) Both the sunshine and the dolphins, were ordered 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!

-The other toe.

The other toe there.

♪ (Kate) It is heaven.

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

(chuckling) On today's walk I'll follow in the footsteps of dinosaurs...

This had two-meter-long legs.

(Will) Yeah, which is taller than both of us.

(Kate) ...and smugglers.

(Maria) The whole village was involved in it.

Fishermen's wives, under their dresses they would have bolts of silk wrapped around their waists and pigs' bladders full of gin.

(Kate) I'll brave the North Sea... -One, two, three.

-One, two, three.

-Go!

-Whoa!

(cheering) (Kate) ...and sample salty greens from beneath the waves... Oh, that's delicious.

Yorkshire's leading the way!

(Jamie) That's it, doesn't get better than that.

(Kate) ...before basking at breathtaking views at every turn.

You just need to look at that, this big, wide expanse of the North Sea.

♪ (sea gulls cawing) (cheerful music) ♪ Look at that.

Isn't that great?

♪ So I'm in Yorkshire, the county where my parents and my grandparents grew up.

And I'm using as my guide the rather wonderful book, The Yorkshire Coast, which was published in 1892.

And just come over here 'cause it is beautiful.

That cluster of buildings perched on the edge, right overlooking the sea, is Robin Hood's Bay.

And it's a rather wonderful picture here drawn by Alfred Dawson.

Love the washing on the beach.

This is where I'm going to start my walk, and I'm gonna follow this beautiful coastline up above the beaches.

There's gonna be some climbing, my legs are gonna feel this.

All the way up to-- you see a group of buildings, that's a place called Ravenscar, and over the hump is Scarborough.

Now if that doesn't invite you to go for a walk, I don't know what will.

My 15-mile clifftop walk today is packed with stunning views and starts 300 feet above the picturesque fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay.

From there I'll follow the rugged Cleveland Way south to Ravenscar, the Victorian town that never was.

My walk then turns wild on the appropriately named Beast Cliff above the twin waterfalls of Hayburn Wyke, loved by 19th century daytrippers.

(upbeat music) Next, I'll search for dinosaurs along Long Nab before arriving at my final destination, the jewel in the crown of Victorian seaside resorts, Scarborough, with its dramatic views back across the bay.

♪ (sea gulls cawing) It's an interesting bit of coast, this.

What's almost impossible to imagine is that this was a coast of real industry in the 17th century.

The view that I'm looking at now, which looks like some sort of rather beautiful rural idyll, would've been a massive activity.

This was the sort of heartland of some of the very earliest bits of not the Industrial Revolution, but pre that.

(peppy music) My first stop is the historic fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay... ♪ ...a jumble of narrow streets and fishermen's cottages... ♪ ...which by the 18th century was trading in much, much more than fish, and most of it illegally.

♪ Its position at the foot of the cliffs made it an ideal drop-off point for contraband shipped from Holland and France.

(Maria) We got stories of fishermen's wives pouring boiling pans of hot water from the top-floor windows down onto customs men when they were chasing the smugglers.

(Kate) I've arranged to get the inside track on the smugglers... You couldn't race around here, could you?

-No.

-...from local archaeologist Maria.

(sea gulls cawing) So this whole village would've been -a kind of den of iniquity?

-Yeah, pretty much.

To be honest, though, it was safe for them to be involved in it than it was for them not to be because their life would've been in danger potentially otherwise.

(Kate) Absolutely, you chose the money.

(Maria) Yeah, a case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

-Yeah.

-Exactly that, but the real story, that is underground.

-Really?

-Yeah, like, well, not the real story, but the best part to get an idea and a sense of it, that's--that's where I'm gonna take you next.

-Okay.

-Okay.

(quirky music) Just basically like a giant culvert.

We don't know when it dates from, probably from the 17th century.

Just used for sewage originally, but it was definitely utilized for smuggling.

There's so many accounts of that.

(Kate) Oh, my goodness, it's perfect, isn't it?

(Maria) It is, isn't it?

Straight from the sea, -straight up.

-Can you get down there?

-We can get right up.

-Right, hold on.

-I've got my helmet with me.

-Okay.

(Kate) So I'll stick it on.

-I'll get mine on.

-You got yours on?

Yep, let's go.

-Following you.

-Yeah, just be steady.

(whimsical music) (sloshing) ♪ (Kate) This is an amazing construction!

(Maria) It is, isn't it?

Oh, we're gonna get deep.

It gets sort of, like-- look, not too deep.

Just stick to the side, you should be all right.

-Ooh, a bit squelchy.

-All right.

-Yeah.

-Come further up here.

It's supposed to be all little culverts and smuggle holes.

There's evidence of one here.

-Oh yeah.

-It's now just a drain, but you can see it was obviously a lot bigger and it's been blocked in later.

(Kate) So the thought was that people who had contraband -would stash them in the walls?

-Yeah.

Or they could pass them up through into houses.

There's a network all the way around town of underground caverns, doorways that led from one house to another.

(sloshing) So this is the bit I really want to show you.

(splashing) Go up in here.

-Woo--yeah, yeah.

-You okay?

-Oh yeah, look at that.

-You see, these actually just floorboards straight to the pub above.

-Does it go way back?

-It does, it does.

Let's go in.

If it's open, you can sometimes hear people walking.

-Really?

-Yeah.

(Kate) That is amazing!

(Maria) There's a story from 1803 of a land battle between the customs men and the smugglers those people who are injured are smuggled to the pub, and then under this cabin, and then off to wherever they went, nobody knows now.

(wondrous music) Silk was one of the main things smuggled, -but also tea.

-Tea, really?

(Maria) Tea, yeah, inland revenue estimated that of the 4 million pounds worth of tea that was being drunk in the UK, 3 million pounds of that was smuggled.

(Kate) And obviously Yorkshire, home to good tea.

(Maria) Well, exactly, you know.

Look, here's one of the little potential holes, yeah.

Been filled in from above, but you could imagine -dropping something down.

-Yeah, absolutely, you can-- yeah, you can imagine little hand coming down, things being passed up, whispers going through.

-Yeah.

-Oh, it's so atmospheric.

(Maria) And as I say, everyone was involved in it.

There's stories of fishermen's wives who would carry the day's catch over towards Witfield, but under their dresses they would have bolts of silk wrapped around their waists and pigs bladders full of gin -that had been smuggled.

-Oh, my goodness!

(Maria) And then we're at the other end of the town.

(Kate) Wow, so here we are out.

Where are we in the town?

(Maria) Well, if you can see, this is actually where we met, -where we started.

-Oh, my goodness, -all the way up there?

-Yeah, halfway up the town.

(Kate) There's people walking past now, they've got no sense we're down here, so you could just be completely hidden.

(Maria) Exactly, you're nestled away as well, -the sound won't travel.

-Yeah.

(Maria) And the sound of the beck would obviously disguise noises, -wouldn't it?

-I tell you what, I know you're trained as an archaeologist, I reckon you'd make a brilliant smuggler.

(chuckling) Coming up: Oh yeah, there she is.

One of our most elusive snakes... You are very, very beautiful.

...thriving in the most unlikely of settings.

I've always thought as adders needing heathland.

I certainly don't think of them as a creature that lives near the sea.

And the Victorian holiday town that never was.

You can see the sea, but it's quite a long way down, -isn't it?

-We're 600 feet up and our cliffs are quite tricky to negotiate.

(Kate) Yeah.

(peppy music) ♪ I'm in North Yorkshire heading south along the Cleveland Way from Robin Hood's Bay to Scarborough.

Ha-ha!

Oh, I'm gonna get wet feet.

But before I head back onto the cliffs, there's just enough time to explore the beach.

♪ Oh, it's all atmospheric and damp and gloomy, and you can imagine the smugglers coming in and where are they gonna stash their goods?

I mean, this is perfect, isn't it?

This is the gloriously named Boggle Hole.

You could boggle a few things away in there, couldn't you?

Lovely little rock pools all along here.

They're like beautiful, natural aquariums.

We've got limpets, winkles, and whelks.

There's some little fish darting around.

Oh, look, and then there's a tiny, tiny, little crab, so tiny you can barely see it.

Just lovely!

From here the path hugs the bay onto the 500-year-old site of the country's first ever chemical works, and then it's a long hike up to the Victorian town that never was, Ravenscar.

(cheerful music) ♪ Ah, look at that!

Isn't that great?

My husband's from Yorkshire.

He always says it's God's own country.

When you look at views like this I'm not sure I can argue with him, and we love an argument.

♪ Gonna skip down here quickly.

(wind whooshing) There's these remains of a World War II bunker.

Wherever you are around our coast, you're likely to come across these reminders of a very dangerous time in history.

Thousands were built in the 1940s to guard against an expected German invasion from across the sea.

(birds chirping) Tell you what, they might've built this to defend the Yorkshire coast from invasion, but our days the coast is guarded by sand martins in their own little bunker with a view.

Aw, they're such great little birds.

(peppy music) ♪ A mile along the cliff you can clearly see what looks like the outline of an ancient settlement.

♪ In fact, it's a 16th century factory which dominated this coastline for hundreds of years, producing a chemical called alum.

♪ Today much of this coastline is protected by the National Trust.

♪ -Are you Bill?

-Hi, yes, I'm Bill.

-Hello there, hello.

-Hello.

-Thank you very much... -You're welcome.

(Kate) ...for meeting me in this rather beautiful spot.

(Bill) Well, welcome to the Peak Alum Works.

(Kate) Thank you very, very much indeed.

So alum is what?

(Bill) Well, alum is a fixing agent that was used in the textile industry for fixing natural dyes to cloth.

(Kate) And so what does it actually look like?

(Bill) Well, I just happen to have... -I knew you would.

-...one I made earlier.

(chuckling) It's not in a flour yet.

-Yeah.

-But it's a crystalized form.

(Kate) So it would've been ground up?

(Bill) Ground up into a flour which was a lot easier to mix with the natural dyes of the time.

And it was basically quarried from gray shale in the ground.

-Really?

-Yeah, yeah, and it's--this is the stuff, this is out in the quarry here at Ravenscar.

-Where's the quarry?

-It's further up in front of us.

(Kate) Oh, so where all these scars are-- (Bill) Where all those--absolutely, where all those scars are in the landscape.

(quirky music) (Kate) Making alum was really complicated.

The shale was quarried and then burned on huge fires all year round, before being mixed with water and poured hundreds of meters down to the alum works below.

So there would've been channels running from those cliffs -all the way down to here?

-All the way down into this main boiling house, factory complex.

(Kate) So is this all the walls I'm seeing down here?

(Bill) Absolutely, then they added other things like potash, burnt seaweed, and stale human urine.

-What?

-Stale--stale human urine.

Um, the--they wanted-- (Kate) I mean, hang on a second, hang on.

Now, I mean, this is the most bonkers thing.

(Bill) They needed ammonia to--to reduce the acidity.

But in order to produce a ton of alum, they had to have tons of urine, so-- -Literally tons?

-Tons of urine.

So they brought it from Hull and London up by ship.

-Seriously?

-Seriously.

Do you know the term, "Taking the piss?"

-Yes.

-That is from -taking the piss.

-Seriously?

(Bill) It's the chap who used to walk around with the dray horse with the barrels on either side collecting buckets of wee from, uh--from doorsteps.

(chuckling) (Kate) I can't--I-- I'm absolutely speechless.

Really--and do you know how much people were paid for that?

-Is that, like, one pee?

-Probably a penny, probably a penny a pee, going for a pee.

(Kate) Oh yeah, going for a pee.

That is absolutely extraordinary.

(pleasant music) ♪ The stale urine and heavy industry are long gone, and this place is now home to something closer to my heart.

♪ A much misunderstood, very shy, and endangered species: The adder.

Bill, I can't believe you were able to spot an adder quite that quickly.

Are they quite, um, sort of loyal to particular spots then?

(Bill) Certainly the hibernaculum they are loyal to.

-What's a hibernaculum?

-Their overwintering site.

-Right.

-It's basically their home.

(Kate) But I have to say, this is not what I would think of as classic adder country.

I've always thought of adders needing kind of heathland.

I certainly don't think of them as a creature that lives near the sea, -I don't know why.

-Well, it's a really good adder habitat.

We get an abundance of small mammals, shrews, voles, wood mice.

(Kate) And that would be-- that would be classic prey -for adders?

-It's a classic food source for the adders.

(Kate) Huh, she's just moved off that kind of ledge and curled in amongst the rocks there, and she is looking straight at me.

Yes, you are very, very beautiful.

Well, Bill, what a wonderful treat that was.

Buckets of urine and one of the most beautiful reptiles we have in the UK.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome, thank you.

(wondrous music) ♪ (Kate) Absolutely beautiful here, like something out of Lord of the Rings.

My next stop is less than a mile away, but it involves a 500-foot climb.

♪ It's tough walking this coast.

There's a lot of ups and downs, but I'm heading this way.

♪ At the peak of the hill there's the home of the owner of the alum works, built in 1774.

♪ But that and its amazing views aren't the reasons I'm heading there.

♪ No, I'm climbing to see the town that never was.

♪ A place called Ravenscar.

♪ I've arranged to meet Mary to find out more.

Now, Mary, what's its history?

(Mary) So a group of gentlemen, um, in 1896, had a dream to invest in this area and develop it into a seaside resort to rival Scarborough, Blackpool even.

(Kate) The developers converted the hall into a hotel.

The next stage was building a holiday town around it.

-This square here... -Yeah.

(Mary) ...is built from this plan.

(Kate) Oh, it--right, so they-- the built a square.

(Mary) Yes, and the--the properties you can see here were what the called the Pioneer Houses.

-Right.

-So they were built to showcase the designs of-- -Show homes, basically?

-A show home, yeah.

They then proceeded to publicize the plan, advertise the plots.

(quirky music) ♪ (Kate) Ravenscar was advertised as an exclusive, upmarket, seaside resort for wealthy Victorians.

And anticipating huge demand, the developers even installed a brickworks ready to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding town.

♪ (Mary) They held, I think it was something like 46 auctions.

Hundreds and hundreds of these plots were sold.

(Kate) Right, so every single one of these numbers on here -is a plot?

-Yeah.

Over here would've been the workers' houses.

-Oh, okay.

-Um, I can see on the marine esplanade here, these plots are much bigger because obviously these would be the big Victorian villas that would have the beautiful sea views.

And the people buying these plots were encouraged to maybe buy a plot here to provide housing for their servants.

(Kate) But isn't the big flaw in their plan to make this a seaside resort, it's not actually on the sea?

I mean, you can see the sea, but it's quite a long way down, isn't it?

(Mary) We are 600 feet up and our cliffs are quite tricky to negotiate.

-Yeah.

-At the time when the plan was developed, there was a staircase down to the beach, but it was very windy and steep, difficult, and you could imagine Victorian ladies struggling-- (Kate) In their-- in all those crinolines and things like that, it would've been a nightmare.

(Mary) And the other big downside is the beach because we haven't got a sandy beach.

-Right, right.

-Our beach is a rocky scar.

-Yeah.

-There is hardly any sand down there at all.

The sales brochures and a lot of the flyers showed Ravenscar with this beautiful sandy beach.

People coming in were thinking, "Yes, we would love a plot here to build our dream holiday home," and were very disappointed.

-Right.

-Many people, they just changed their mind.

The town never happened.

(contemplative music) (Kate) Eventually the development stopped in its tracks, leaving roads going nowhere and curbstones without pavements.

♪ Thank you for telling me this extraordinary story of Ravenscar.

♪ (water washing ashore) The beaches might not have appealed to the Victorians... ♪ ...but they are loved by this colony of about 300 common and grey seals.

♪ (seals barking) I tell you what, can look at them for hours and hours.

Around June and July the common seals come ashore to pup, while in November it's the turn of the grey seals.

And my tip on telling them apart is to check out their noses.

The grey seal's snout is much bigger... ♪ ...while the common seals have smaller, neater, V-shaped nostrils.

(seals barking) ♪ (waves washing ashore) (peppy music) Coming up: Ah, this is gorgeous.

A stretch of coast where prehistoric giants -once roamed.

-I would say, if you were to look carefully at this block, you could probably find upwards of 15 dinosaur footprints on it -I think.

-Wow!

♪ And I discover a superfood growing on our beaches.

Oh, that's delicious.

Yorkshire's leading the way!

(Jamie) That's it, doesn't get better than that.

♪ (bright music) ♪ I'm midway along my 15-mile Yorkshire clifftop walk on a coastline that's been loved by holidaymakers since the 18th century, where my final destination is considered by many to be Britain's first, and in its day, finest seaside resort: Scarborough.

♪ But before I continue, I'm taking a detour through a protected area of coastal woodland called the Beast Cliff... ♪ Ah, this is gorgeous.

...to a renowned beauty spot at the foot of the rocks.

There's something about coming to a sea view and you've walked through woodland and it seems so kind of unexpected even if you know it's there.

(whimsical music) Today it's practically deserted.

But a century ago it would've been bustling with daytrippers, who would've arrived by train at the specially built station.

(wind whooshing) So this lovely spot is Hayburn Wyke.

The book enchanted me because it describes the way here as, "A most delightful way, bringing down the wayfarer through the deep glen of the thorny beck to where, in a brawling cataract, the brook pours down upon the pebbly shore of a deep sequestered cove."

And then there's a little star by the word "cove," and the footnote says, "The steep paths through these most beautiful woods are very slippery and difficult to traverse after heavy rains," which they are, but it's absolutely worth it.

Look at this.

(dog barking) (wondrous music) There's a very happy spaniel down there.

What are you woofing at?

♪ (chuckling) ♪ From here I'll head to the Long Nab Bird Observatory along a stretch known as the Dinosaur Coast, before my final leg drops me down into the Victorian resort town of Scarborough.

♪ And with each mile I can't help but feel exhilarated by this enchanting walk.

♪ Given that there's been such a long history of tourism on this coast, there are just these lovely, long swathes of uninterrupted countryside along the cliffs, where's you think there'd be wall-to-wall Victorian hotels and kiss-me-quick hats.

it's such a treat.

Gloriously uncluttered.

(wind whooshing) Ah, ha-ha, I mean, I don't really need to say anything, you just need to look at that.

Few bales, few sheep, few cows, and then this big, wide expanse of the North Sea.

(birds cawing) Makes you realize how lucky we are.

(cheerful music) ♪ Up ahead is the Long Nab Observatory, but I won't be bird watching.

Instead, I'm dropping down to the rocks below in search of their ancestors.

(waves washing ashore) Feels like a jungle down here, Will.

(indistinct remarks) And geologist Will is my guide.

♪ (Will) So these are our Jurassic sediments.

-Okay.

-And they contain -some amazing fossils.

-What sort of fossils are you talking about?

Marine fossils like you find on the Dorset Coast, ammonites, ichthyosaurs if you're really lucky?

(Will) No, we're completely different up here.

If you look carefully here, I don't know if you can see, coming towards you there's actually something that looks like it might have three lines here.

(Kate) It looks like a giant bird's foot.

(Will) It is a giant bird's foot, it's a dinosaur's footprint.

-No, it can't be!

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

A dinosaur that have three toes, one, two, three toes.

Walked on two legs.

(Kate) Why do you know that it walked on two legs?

Most dinosaurs-- well, all dinosaurs that we know of with three toes walked on two legs, and we know that from the skeletons.

-Right.

-Which we don't really get -up here, the skeletons.

-Okay.

So this was a happy dinosaur place?

No dinosaurs died in the making of this coastline.

They were just on holiday, as everybody comes to the Yorkshire Coast -for holidays.

-'Course they were.

They were on holiday, yeah-- I can tell you how big it was.

-How?

-Well, if you times the length -of the foot by about four... -Yeah.

(Will) So this is, what, about maybe six, seven inches long?

-Yeah.

-In old money.

So you got one, two, three, four, that's length of its leg, and you got a body on top of it.

So this is not a big dinosaur, it's the size of a Labrador.

(Kate) Okay, but standing on two legs, so it wouldn't have looked anything like a Labrador.

(Will) No, it'd look like a very large turkey.

(Kate) And it sticks out because this would've been a print in the mud that's filled in?

(Will) Yes, it's what we call a trace fossil.

If you ever been out and done plaster casts as a kid of a bird's footprint or something like that, you know, in the woods or whatever, that's what you're seeing there.

(Kate) And I mean, is this-- is this a freak or are there lots of them along here?

There's a lot along here, there are thousands of footprints.

The trick is knowing how to recognize them.

(Kate) Right, I--that is a-- that is a gauntlet I hear being thrown down.

(quirky music) (Will) So you wanna be looking for these sort of-- these little sandstones or the gray siltstones-- (Kate) Okay, oh, hang on a second.

-Is that?

-Yeah, there's something going on there.

I would say, if you were to look carefully at this block, you could probably find upwards of 15 dinosaur footprints on it -I think.

-Well, that's the most obvious one.

-That's just beautiful.

-Yep.

So there's one here that's actually underneath this one, -see the three toes here.

-Yeah.

Oh, my goodness, yeah, so you have, yeah.

(Will) A lot of different layers going on here.

There's another one here that's underneath some of the others.

(waves crashing) -There's stuff everywhere.

-There is.

On this coastline we have around 30 different dinosaur footprint shapes that we find.

-As many as that?

-Yeah, yeah, everything from tiny, little dinosaurs with footprints maybe that sort of length, two centimeters long, right way up to footprints -maybe a meter and a half long.

-Seriously?

(Will) Yeah, everything from little things on two legs... -Yeah.

-...to the massive sauropods, which are the big, four-legged, barrel-bodied, plant-eating giants -of the Jurassic-- -The ones with -the great, big necks... -Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.

(Kate) ...that sneeze and they snot all over everybody?

-Apparently so.

-I know the ones.

Hang on, is that something there?

(Will) Unfortunately that's just a mudcrack.

If you move your left hand about 30 centimeters left and put it down a bit further... -There?

-You've got your hand on one of the toes right there.

(Kate) Now you're just mucking about.

This is--this is geologist trying to make it more interesting.

(Will) If you look here, you got back of the heel here, one toe down the middle, -toe here, and a toe there.

-Oh, you are right!

-Yeah, really eroded.

-So it sort of, uh--can't do it.

-It's sort of that, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah, that's right, -yeah, spot on.

-Wow!

Another two-legged dinosaur because it has three toes.

I'm gonna go 50 centimeters for that one.

This had two-meter-long legs.

(Will) Yeah, which is taller than both of us.

-That--that's a big bird.

-Yeah, and for me, there's so much more still to be found, and anybody can find it, anybody out on a walk with their dog or on holiday.

Keep your eyes on the ground, as well as the amazing views, and you will see some of this evidence, and just, you don't know, you might be the next person to find that next species of dinosaur.

(Kate) There's a challenge, and I was gonna go and get an ice cream.

(chuckling) (adventurous music) ♪ The final leg of my walk stretches out before me.

♪ (birds cawing) ♪ Ah.

There's my first view of Scarborough Castle.

♪ I have to wave at it for my husband who was born in Scarborough, and that's his favorite landmark anywhere in the UK.

♪ All that remains is a three-mile hike around the cliffs, and my path drops down into Scarborough, where the 11th century castle ruins stand overlooking the North and South Bay.

♪ This is amazing, this place.

(peppy music) Renowned as the jewel in the crown of Victorian seaside resorts... Hey, guys!

...I'm about to learn how it's now leading the way with another coastal industry... ♪ ...that could revolutionize fuel, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and a whole lot more.

♪ Well, this isn't a bad place to work, is it?

(Jamie) Day like today, it's pretty good.

-You must be Jamie.

-I am, yes, nice to meet you.

(Kate) Nice to meet you, too-- oh, it's quite slippy on here, -isn't it, wow.

-You gotta be careful.

So, seaweed?

-Yes.

-This is your thing.

(Jamie) It is, yeah, absolutely, we've been doing this -for the last two years here.

-Right.

(Jamie) There's about six species that we get in total, and then right now we're harvesting three of them -at this location.

-Okay.

(Jamie) One of them that we get is seagreens.

-Yeah.

-Sort of like lettuce really, -lettuce of the sea.

-Yeah.

(Jamie) It's great for salads, so you could blanch it as a spinach substitute and it's really healthy, what you consider a superfood.

(Kate) Now this is something that I've heard about, seaweed, it gets that kind of attachment, "Superfood."

-Absolutely.

-What's so super about it?

Because I have to say, it doesn't look that appetizing.

(Jamie) It's packed full with nutrients, minerals, antioxidants.

-It's a great source of protein.

-Right.

What else are you picking up?

(Jamie) Right, so another one we get in this location is kelp.

(Kate) Now kelp, I would never thought you could eat it 'cause it's tough as anything.

(Jamie) We basically just dehydrate it and we can mill it -and put it into seasonings.

-Would you use it -like salt and pepper?

-Absolutely, yes.

(Kate) But it hasn't got the taste, 'cause you're talking to -a salt fiend here, Jamie.

-Right.

(Kate) So I still want that lovely, salty... -Absolutely.

-...savory taste.

-Do you get that from kelp?

-You do, naturally with it being from the sea -you get the nice saltiness.

-I suppose that's true.

(quirky music) I've heard that you can't eat all the seaweeds around the British Coast, is that right?

(Jamie) It is, yeah, some are nicer than others, and I would-- maybe not that one per se.

-No, no.

-But certainly the seagreens, you can absolutely pick that and eat it as it is.

(Kate) I would quite like to try it.

-Is there any sort of nearby?

-There should be some, yeah, -let's have a quick look--yes.

-Oh, there's one.

-Little dip just there.

-Can I just pull it up?

-Yes, absolutely.

-Like that?

Well, let's try.

♪ Mm, oh, it is good.

And it's-- what's surprising about it is it looks really flimsy, but actually it's got -a bit of body to it, hasn't it?

-It has, yeah.

It's almost like a lettuce leaf, and as I say, it's completely fine to take home -and use that raw in salads.

-Yeah!

Gosh, that is delicious.

So you have basically made this amazing natural resource... Can we go and have a look at where your guys are cutting?

...into a business, is that right?

(Jamie) Absolutely, yes-- people just see it on the beach -and don't think anything of it.

-Yeah.

(Jamie) "Oh, the dog will pick it up," that sort of thing.

-Yeah.

-So it's that sort of thing.

But it's big part of the culture elsewhere in the world, certainly Asia and Scandinavia, and we want to bring that to England.

(Kate) But hand harvesting, the way that you're doing here, seems hugely labor intensive.

(Jamie) Yeah, but we are just in the process of installing the UK's first offshore seaweed farm.

-Really?

-We are, yes.

It's four miles straight out there.

-What, out there?

-Straight out there just off the coast there, it's just straight out.

You won't see it from here, but it's 25 hectares in size.

-That's enormous!

-That's a big farm.

(regal music) (Kate) Seaweed farming first took place in Japan 350 years ago when spores were grown on long bamboo poles.

And today's methods haven't changed that much, with seaweed commonly grown on a network of underwater ropes, before being winched to the surface for harvesting.

(Jamie) It'll allow us to cultivate seaweed in huge, huge volumes that'll allow us supply for pharmaceuticals... -Yeah.

-...cosmetics, agriculture, and animal feed.

There's biofuels and bioplastics as well, -just to name a few.

-Bioplastics?

(Jamie) Yeah, seaweed can be used in plastics that we would use every day, so whether that's sort of the plastic bottles you get Coke in, the soda, that sort of thing, or carrier bags, it can be made into biodegradable alternative.

(Kate) Wow, that's very, very exciting.

-It is.

-And in Yorkshire?

-Absolutely.

-Yorkshire's leading the way!

(Jamie) That's it, doesn't get better than that.

(chuckling) (Kate) Coming up: My walk ends at an iconic landmark on the North Yorkshire Coast.

The Victorians knew what they were doing, didn't they?

Building seaside towns in beautiful places like this.

And I discover why the Victorians took the sea in their thousands during the heyday of the British seaside resort.

We'd have the bathing machines on the beach -and the men would be nude.

-Oh, quite sad you haven't organized that for me today.

(chuckling) (peppy music) I'm reaching the end of my Yorkshire clifftop walk at the jewel in the crown of Victorian seaside resorts, Scarborough's South Bay.

♪ Ah.

Glorious here.

(birds cawing) When Scarborough's Grand Hotel opened in 1867, it was apparently the largest in Europe, which tells you just how popular the town was as a holiday resort.

♪ Visitors flocked from as far away as London to drink the spring waters and indulge in the latest craze for sea bathing.

♪ Which is exactly what I'm doing this afternoon with a group of local swimming enthusiasts.

♪ Hey, guys!

-How are you?

-Welcome to Scarborough.

(Kate) Lovely to see you, thank you for organizing this.

Such a beautiful, beautiful day.

-You're very welcome.

-The sea is so calm.

(Angela) It's perfect for swimming today.

(Kate) Angela and hubby Dave have been braving the North Sea for years come rain, sun, and even snow.

Temperature-wise of the sea, what are we looking at -at the moment?

-It's 14, 15 today.

(Kate) Okay, okay, so still bracing.

(Angela) Yes, yes.

(Kate) Are we going to squeal?

(Angela) I think we may do.

(Kate) But how do you feel when you've done it?

When you come out of the sea how do you feel?

(Angela) You just feel amazing.

It's a big reset button.

(Kate) Yeah, I mean, this is the thing, it's got this reputation, hasn't it, of Scarborough for the restorative waters?

(Angela) Yes, during the 19th century, we'd have the bathing machines on the beach, and in the early days the men would be nude.

(Kate) Right, but so then literally they'd be taken down in cabins to the water's edge, so they didn't sort of -show themselves to the public?

-Yeah, so they could go straight into the water, then straight back inside, -get changed.

-How civilized.

I'm quite sad you haven't organized that for me today.

(laughing) -So should I go get changed?

-Yes, yeah, let's do it.

(Kate) Come on then, come on, you come with me.

(mellow guitar music) ♪ (birds cawing) ♪ (Angela) You just have to imagine the sun shining and it's warm.

-Yes, yes.

-So don't tense up.

-Nope.

-Remember.

-Yeah, breathing.

-And breathing.

(Kate) It's all about the breathing.

Crikey, I've just felt the water just on my toe and that's cold enough.

(chuckling) Hoo-hoo!

(wave crashing) He's mad!

-I'm going in.

-Are you going in?

-I'm gonna check the shore.

-Go on then.

(splashing) -I don't do even-- -No, I'm--I think-- should we just glide in gently, Angela?

-We will.

-Should we do it?

-One, two, three.

-One, two, three.

-Go!

-Whoa!

-Oh!

-Oh-hoo!

Oh, and keep those enders up.

(chuckling) (sloshing) Breathing.

-Are you breathing?

-I'm breathing.

-We're all breathing.

-All breathing.

(sloshing) (uplifting music) (Kate) Wow!

(sloshing) Oh, it's wonderful!

-Yeah, welcome.

-It is wonderful!

-The North Sea.

-Ah!

♪ How you doing, lovely Angela?

(Angela) I'm good thanks.

♪ (labored breathing) ♪ Ah.

Well, I did think Angela and David were a little bit eccentric, if not full on mad, but I have to say, it was--it was absolutely as you said it was.

It just--it is so invigorating.

-Thank you, thank you.

-So glad you did it.

-Our pleasure.

-It was fantastic.

But you did say something earlier about tea and cake.

-Yes.

-Do you think we've earned it?

(Dave) I reckon you've earned it.

(Kate) Let's get in there.

(pleasant music) ♪ (birds cawing) I've just one more push to reach the end of my walk.

♪ 300 feet up on the headland between Scarborough's North and South Bays.

♪ It's Scarborough Castle.

♪ Well, what a lovely walk that was.

It is just a really beautiful, quite wild piece of Britain's coast.

A lot of the time it felt like I had the cliffs just to myself with the soaring gulls beyond me.

And that it ends up here in classic seaside heaven in Scarborough, it's a real contrast.

♪ But maybe my guidebook should have the final say.

♪ "If you seek a picturesque coast where bay succeeds bay, and where lofty escarpments of rock rear their seamed and weather-beaten faces, here you have them as few other places can give them to you."

♪ The Victorians knew what they were doing, didn't they?

Building seaside towns in beautiful places like this.

♪ Next time: Wow!

I'm hunting for fossils... (guide) That is one of the small ammonites that we're looking for.

(Kate) ...and treasure deep underground... (guide) This is a hidden Catholic church.

(Kate) A sort of "up yours" to Henry VIII.

-Yeah.

-...along the Jurassic Coast.

-Don't miss.

-I won't miss, Jim.

(Jim) I'll have to throw you overboard if you miss all that.

(peppy music) ♪ (bright music)