A day in Scarborough

Harbour

The harbour at Scarborough is in two parts. The outer or east harbour dries completely and is used to be the only place for leisure craft..
Recently pontoons have been laid in the inner or old harbour and these are dredged to 1.8 m. Robinetta stayed afloat our whole stay. However the entrance dries HW +/- 4 as one hapless sailor found out during our stay when he tried to leave at low water. He had to sit in the harbour entrance for quite a while.

There is a red and white painted pole in the middle of the water next to the visitor's pontoon in the inner harbour. We found out that this marks the edge of the scrubbing platform. There are two parts to this. At one end it is a broad solid platform. At the other it is has strips of concrete a boat can dry out on and one can walk between them and get right under the boat. A small fishing boat used it to anti-foul the hull between tides.

In the outer harbour, deep keel craft moor in floating cradles which support them at low water

The west pier is still given over to the fishing industry and excellent fish and shell-fish can be bought off the quay. We bought a dressed crab for about 2/3 the price it was going for 30 yards away on the tourist stalls.

Another gem on the west pier is the Harbour View cafe where we had an excellent full english breakfast.
Outside the harbour a local coble was having great success drift-netting for salmon. I've never seen commercial fishing going on so close to both harbour and pleasure beach.

Castle

The medieval keep of Scarborough castle makes a great day mark when approaching by sea but is completely hidden from view when in the harbour. Once the stiff climb has been made. A typical English Heritage site it is well signed with the different phases of building and notable events clearly noted. A small museum of finds and a friendly tea room occupy the master gunner's house. Both bronze and iron age forts have been identifed as well as a roman signal station.

Our fine breakfast removed the need for lunch so we just tried the wine and preserves available for tasting before heading down into town and buying milk and some pasties for lunch the following day on passage.

Peasholm Park

In the afternoon we had a rest and then headed out around the marine parade to the north bay and then on to Peasholm Park, most famous for it's re-enactments of naval warfare.

Between the wars the Battle of Jutland was the thing. After WW2 it was the River Plate. These days we are told unnamed adversaries are considered more politically correct for an international audience. In June the battles take place only on Saturdays so we couldn't see one. Sharp eyes may be able to make out some of the models in this photograph.

This goose tried really hard to teach her gosling how to go up the slope but the little gosling got very confused.

The park is very pretty and there are a number of interesting sculptures, this one is carved in situ from a tree trunk and the subject is in keeping with the chinese motif of the park.

In the evening we went to the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Apparently this was the first 'theatre in the round' in Britain. Unfortunately the play was not very good.