A Stroll With Stu: Walk around Robin Hood's Bay ends with glassed raised at reopened pub

Unfortunately, nobody told the weather man and a dark, wet cloud had descended over the coast.

Visibility was so poor that the bus driver struggled to find the stop at old St Stephen’s Church on the road from Hawsker.

I was obliged to continue, as I wanted to do something for the New Year edition of the Gazette.

As the bus disappeared into the gloom, I wandered over to where I though the old church should be and sure enough, it began to emerge from the murk looking more than a tad spooky.

The church dates back to 1821 and guards hundreds of headstones dedicated to the lives of local mariners and fishermen.

I read somewhere that they are so close together because some of these are not graves at all - many of the souls on the inscriptions were actually lost at sea.

It is well worth a look round and has an informative website on t’interweb.

I intended to walk along High Lane as this showcases wonderful views across Baytown and over to Ravenscar.

Well, it usually does, but today I may as well have had a bag over my head so I took the more direct route down Church Lane – turning left after coming out of the church gate.

Ignore the first footpath on your left, taking the second marked path half a mile or so down the hill.

This runs alongside Lingers Beck and is characterised by some sloping boardwalks that will test your powers of balance, and at least 10 stiles.

I’ve had fun with stiles over the years.

Some have an auto-collapse mechanism built into them, most are built in a small ocean of mud, several are meeting places for cattle, and a few are guarded by snorting bulls that remain unimpressed when you point at the right of way on your OS Map.

One such beast cunningly hid behind a tree in a field near Chop Gate many years ago, emerging to see me when turn tail and leap over the stile with a foot or two to spare. (I was young and fit. Now, I’d have to take him on).

There are lots of stiles on this stretch, some of which are fairly new and accordingly sturdy, but there is one which was built by someone who usually makes see-saws and I’ll leave you to find it for yourselves.

Drop on to Thorpe Lane and turn left, soon passing the Cinder Track and New St Stephen’s Church, to reach Robin Hood’s Bay upper village.

At this point I recommend a walk around the alleyways in the village, but the last time I did so a resident wrote to the Gazette.

He was a bit miffed at the suggestion to readers that they may like to walk around the ginnel in front of his house, stopping to peer through his kitchen window as he was enjoying a bowl of soup for his lunch.

Now, it is true that hundreds of visitors wander these alleyways and it is equally true that they are stupendously pretty, but the fella had a point.

There are many - too many - second homes and holiday lets in the old town, but some of these cottages are people’s homes so I ask you to respect their privacy if you choose to explore, unless you fancy wearing a bowl of piping hot Cream of Tomato.

I’m not going to suggest a specific route, but maybe seek out the excellent museum on the far side of the beck, accessed by the narrow path called Jim Bell’s stile 150 yards after Muir Lea stores.

Work your way to the slipway at the foot of the road (a little walk down to the beach is compulsory), then up King Street to reach the Dolphin Pub halfway up the hill.

A favourite haunt in my youth before the long stagger down the beach to Boggle Hole Youth Hostel (fingers crossed that we’d read the tide time correctly), it closed many years ago and, amidst rumours of structural dodginess, most thought that it might never reopen.

Well on the day I visited, it did!

A huge amount of work has been done by Dave Brown and many others to restore the pub in time to partially reopen for the Christmas period.

There is a lot more to do and the pub should be fully reopened in a couple of months.

I just think that at a time when pubs are going to the wall all over the country, the renaissance of this lovely old place, is well worth raising a glass to.

So I raised three of theirs.

Welcome back Ye Dolphin.