The Square – Robin Hood’s Bay – Card

The Cleveland Way is one of the shorter national trails, beginning in Helmsley in North Yorkshire. The path takes you to the coast at Saltburn by the Sea, and then all along the coastal path to Filey Brigg. In May 2025 I ran the whole path over the course of a week. I was on my own for most of it, then joined by my best running friends at Whitby for the last couple of days. I carried a little running pack with everything I needed for the week on my back (I wasn’t camping!) and the smallest drawing kit in a pouch on my front. I stopped to draw whenever inspiration struck. I took photographs too, but mostly the paintings are based on the sketches.

When we were a little family of just Daniel, Hattie and I, we spent a February week in Robin Hoods Bay in a friends cottage. It was so chilly we all wore hats in bed on our first night, until the house started to thaw. I wandered the narrow cobbled streets to find the house again and I know that it's near here as I remembered the palm tree in the garden of this house.