A Day At Scarborough

With the weather being so nice last week, Mick decided to take a day off work so that we could spend a day at the seaside. He chose Friday so that it would make a long weekend and we headed off to Scarborough on the Yorkshire East coast.

Scarborough has two bays, North Bay and South Bay, but before we went down to the beach there was somewhere I wanted to visit first.

I've been coming to Scarborough since I was a tiny baby yet I'd never yet seen this famous resting place of Anne Bronte.

Anne Bronte, a member of a nineteenth century literary family, who wrote Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the only member of the family not buried at Haworth. She had been suffering from the early stages of consumption and was in Scarborough for the change of air hoping that it might relieve the symptoms. She died on 28th May 1849 and her grave can be found in St Mary's churchyard.

The original headstone gave Anne's age as 28 when in fact, she died aged 29.

The Bronte Society installed a new plaque in 2011 which gives Anne's true age.

Just across the road from the churchyard is the entrance to Scarborough Castle, another place in Scarborough I've never visited.

The plaque tells how the site was fortified in the 12th century and was last used defensively in 1745.

We didn't go inside the castle on this occasion but we wandered around the walls.

There would have been some wonderful views but a haze had descended which lasted the whole day. Here we're looking out on North Bay.

The lighthouse and harbour looking out towards South Bay.

On our way back to the car we passed these cute little cottages.

It was time now to get on to the beach, we'd all waited long enough and Archie couldn't wait much longer. He took one look at the sea and off he went.

Archie's quite a soft dog in some respects but not where water's concerned, he can't get enough of it.

As usual, he dried himself off by rolling in the sand.

I was really pleased that Eleanor wanted to come on our day out with us. We're often on our own these days as at nearly seventeen she doesn't always want to be hanging out with her parents, but I love to spend time with her as she's such good company.

We spent quite a bit of time on the beach much to Archie's delight, there were lots of other dogs for him to play with as well as an abundance of rock pools.

The sands were finally left behind and we wandered by the busy harbour with its array of fishing boats.

There were dozens and dozens of lobster pots and crab traps stacked together.

We walked along the row of shops and shacks selling all manner of seaside paraphernalia, shells, seafood, buckets and spades etc.

We'd taken a small picnic with us so we didn't have to buy any food, still, we couldn't resist a small portion of chips, Eleanor had a tray to herself and Mick and I shared one. Can you see who else was waiting for a chip?

It was a lovely day out and though there was a steady breeze all day long, it was still much warmer than we'd usually expect in April. We took our trip in the nick of time as the good weather has broken today and we've got rain and high winds, it's much cooler too.