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Although known as Robbyn Huddes Bay as early as Tudor times, there's nothing except half-remembered myth to link ROBIN HOOD'S BAY with Sherwood's legendary bowman - locals anyway prefer the old name, Bay Town or simply Bay. Perhaps the best-known and most heavily visited spot on the coast, the village fully lives up to its reputation, with narrow streets and pink-tiled cottages toppling down the cliff-edge site, evoking the romance of a time when this was both a hard-bitten fishing community and smugglers' den par excellence . From the upper village, lined with Victorian villas, now mostly B&Bs, it's a 1-in-3 walk down the hill to the harbour. Here, Bay is little more than a couple of narrow streets lined with gift shops and cafes, and a steep slipway that leads down to the curving, rocky shoreline . When the tide is out, the massive rock beds are exposed, split by a geological fault line and studded with fossil remains. There's an easy walk to Boggle Hole and its youth hostel, a mile south, returning inland via South House Farm and the path along the old Scarborough-Whitby railway line. Buses from Scarborough or Whitby, seven miles north, drop you here too. Whitby has the nearest train station, and the nearest tourist office; walkers , along the coastal Cleveland Way, can make Whitby to Robin Hood's Bay in around three hours. Accommodation is often in short supply during high season. Two good pubs in the lower village have rooms: the tiny Laurel , on Main Street (tel 01947/880400; under GBP40; two-night minimum), whose small self-catering flat sleeps two; and the Bay Hotel , on the harbour (tel 01947/880278; GBP50-60). As well as a score of guest houses in the upper village, there's the late-Victorian Victoria Hotel , Station Road (tel 01947/880205; GBP60-70), at the top of the hill, with fine views from some of its rooms, and a cliff-top beer garden. The other pub, the eighteenth-century Dolphin in King Street, is the oldest in the village, and has folk nights every Friday. Boggle Hole's youth hostel is one of Yorkshire's most popular, a former mill located in a wooded ravine a mile south of Robin Hood's Bay (tel 01947/880352, ). Note that a torch is essential after dark, and that you can't access the hostel along the beach once the tide is up. A couple of miles northwest of Robin Hood's Bay at Hawsker , on the A171, Trailways (tel 01947/820207, ) is a bike rental outfit based in an old train station, perfectly placed for day-trips along the largely flat railway line in either direction. They'll deliver or pick up from local addresses (including Boggle Hole youth hostel); there's also a small campsite and bunkhouse.
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