Most people visit Whitby for Captain Cook. Staithes, Yorkshire, tells the earlier part of that story, and almost nobody goes there.
Most people visit Whitby for Captain Cook. They photograph the statue on the West Cliff, tick off the 199 steps, and drive home satisfied. But Cook’s real starting point sits 10 miles north, on a stretch of coast that most visitors to Yorkshire never reach.
Staithes is not a polished tourist village. It is a working settlement, or it was: a deep ravine cut into the cliffs where red-roofed cottages stack one above the other, cobles rest on the banks of Staithes Beck, and three pubs stand within earshot of the water. A 16-year-old James Cook arrived here in 1745 to sell buttons and thread behind a grocer’s counter. He stayed roughly 18 months. The sea at the end of the street made staying any longer impossible.
That is the village’s most famous claim. What most visitors do not know is that Staithes has other stories running alongside it: a Victorian artists’ colony that shaped British impressionism, a passageway so narrow you must turn sideways to get through it, and a harbour that looks almost exactly as it did when Cook was standing at the end of it, wondering about ships.
Location: Staithes, North Yorkshire, TS13 5BQ
Best for: History, coastal walks, photography, exploring on foot
Getting there: Car: 20 minutes north of Whitby on the A174. Bus: services run from Whitby and Saltburn-by-the-Sea; check current timetables at arrivabus.co.uk before travel. Nearest rail station: Saltburn, on the Middlesbrough to Saltburn line; bus connection available from there.
Open: Village accessible year-round. Staithes Museum open daily except Fridays, 11am to 4pm; confirm at staithes-museum.org.uk
Admission: Village free. Museum: small admission charge; confirm current pricing at staithes-museum.org.uk
The Story
James Cook arrived in Staithes in 1745, aged 16, to work as an apprentice to a grocer and chandler named William Sanderson. The role was not unusual for a young man of his background: Cook came from a farming family in the village of Marton, near Middlesbrough, and working in trade was a reasonable path. Sanderson’s shop stood at the harbourside end of Church Street.
The apprenticeship lasted around 18 months. Cook spent that time watching the harbour from the end of the street: the cobles going out in the morning dark, the catch coming back, the tides moving the water up and across the flat stones of the beck. The North Sea in Staithes is not gentle. The ravine that holds the village funnels the wind and amplifies its sound. Cook grew restless.
Sanderson recognised what was happening and introduced Cook to a friend: John Walker, a Quaker shipowner based in Whitby. Walker agreed to take the boy on as an apprentice seaman. Cook moved to Whitby in 1746. He learned navigation there, went to sea, joined the Royal Navy, and spent the following decades mapping the Pacific and Antarctic oceans.
The building where Cook worked for Sanderson was later lost to the sea. Some of its materials survive in Captain Cook’s Cottage, which still stands on Church Street and is visible on any walk through the village. The Staithes Museum, housed in the old Methodist chapel, holds exhibits on Cook’s time here alongside the broader story of the fishing community. It is a small museum and takes perhaps an hour, but it covers the Cook story more specifically than anything in Whitby.
What to See in Staithes, Yorkshire
Credit – The Whitby Photographer
The upper village, where you park, does not indicate what lies below. You walk down a steep lane, and the village opens beneath you: a ravine settlement with buildings pressing close on both sides, the beck running through the middle, the harbour visible at the far end.
The streets here have names that suit them exactly. Dog Loup is approximately 18 inches wide at its tightest point and is thought to be the narrowest passageway in the north of England. Gun Gutter and Slippery Hill are self-explanatory. None of these routes was planned. They grew from necessity between buildings that were themselves pressed against the cliff.
On the beck, if the weather has been reasonable and the tide is right, you will find cobles drawn up on the banks. The coble is the traditional flat-bottomed boat of the North Yorkshire coast, built specifically to launch and land from open beaches without a harbour wall. Its design changed little between the 17th century and the 20th. The cobles in Staithes are not ornamental; some are still in regular use.
At the bottom of the village, the Cod and Lobster pub sits directly above the water. On rough days in autumn and winter, the waves strike against the harbour wall and send spray high enough to reach the pub sign. The interior is low-ceilinged and unpretentious, and it has been flooded at least three times in its history. It opens at 9:30am in season and serves four changing cask ales alongside food built around local fish.
If you are combining Staithes with other stops along the Yorkshire Heritage Coast, Runswick Bay sits a few miles south, where the mood shifts from ravine to open bay and the pantile-roofed cottages face a sandy crescent rather than a cliff wall. The contrast between the two villages is worth noting.
Why It Matters
Staithes is one of the few places on the North Yorkshire coast that resisted what happened to most coastal villages in the second half of the 20th century. The gift shops are minimal. The working boats are real. The architecture was never cleared and rebuilt for tourism because the ravine made it impractical.
The Staithes Group, a loose colony of artists who settled here in the 1880s and 1890s, drew painters specifically because of this quality. French Impressionism influenced them, and they chose to paint outdoors, in the weather, among the fishing families. Their most famous member was Dame Laura Knight, who lived in the village with her husband, Harold Knight. Knight went on to become the first woman elected a full member of the Royal Academy, and the first woman appointed a Dame for services to art. The place where her eye developed was this ravine.
The Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage, held every September, connects the current artistic community directly to that history. Around 100 artists open their studios and homes over the festival weekend, alongside a parallel programme of heritage talks on the fishing community and the village’s past. In 2026, the main festival days are Saturday, September 12, and Sunday, September 13, with a preview evening on Friday, September 11. More information and the full programme are at staithesfestival.com.
What persists in Staithes is the thing the Staithes Group came here to find: a community still shaped by the water at the end of its streets, with no layer of performance on top of it.
When to Visit Staithes, Yorkshire
Summer mornings bring day-trippers down the bank from around 11am. The village is at its fullest between noon and 3pm. Arriving after 4pm in summer gives you the harbour in soft, lateral light and the streets quieter than they were two hours earlier.
For walking to Port Mulgrave or along the Cleveland Way, spring and early autumn give the clearest air and the best coastal visibility. The 4-mile circular route from Staithes to Port Mulgrave follows the clifftop path through open farmland before descending to the abandoned harbour at Port Mulgrave, then returning along the lower route. Use the AllTrails app for the trail; combined with our guide to the 8 best coastal walks in North Yorkshire beyond Whitby, it gives you the wider context for this stretch of the Cleveland Way.
For the September arts festival, book accommodation well in advance. The village has a limited number of rooms, and the festival draws visitors from across Yorkshire.
Getting There
Staithes is on the A174 between Whitby (10 miles south) and Saltburn-by-the-Sea. From Whitby, the drive takes around 20 minutes. There is a car park at the top of the bank; no road continues into the lower village. Park and walk down.
Bus services run from both Whitby and Saltburn. Confirm current timetables at arrivabus.co.uk before travel, as frequency varies by season. The nearest rail station is Saltburn, on the Middlesbrough-to-Saltburn line; a bus connection from Saltburn to Staithes makes the journey possible without a car, but the schedule is worth verifying before you commit.
Where to Eat and Drink Nearby
The Cod and Lobster, Staithes. A harbourside pub with four cask ales, fresh local fish, and a history of taking the sea’s worst and remaining open. Breakfast from 9:30am in season.
The village has several small cafes along the main street. Crab sandwiches are the standard order here; the North Yorkshire coast supplies the raw material, and the kitchens on this stretch of coast know what to do with it.
Where to Stay
The Endeavour, 1 High Street, Staithes. A boutique bed and breakfast with four individually styled rooms, each drawing on the history of HMS Bark Endeavour. Breakfasts are locally sourced, cooked to order, and include Staithes smoked kippers. Book early; this is a small property on a stretch of coast that fills quickly in summer and during the September festival.
Worth Knowing
- Dog Loup, at approximately 18 inches wide at its narrowest, is thought to be the narrowest street in the north of England. It runs off the main village lane, and most visitors walk past the entrance without noticing it.
- Dame Laura Knight developed her style while living in Staithes with Harold Knight in the 1890s. She later became the first woman elected a full member of the Royal Academy, and the first woman made a Dame for services to art.
- The Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage runs across the second weekend of September each year. In 2026: preview evening Friday, September 11, main festival Saturday 12 and Sunday, September 13. Full programme at staithesfestival.com.
- The Staithes Museum holds dedicated exhibits on Captain Cook’s time in the village and on the history of the local fishing community. Open daily except Fridays, 11am to 4pm.
Practical Tips
- No road access to the lower village. Park at the top-of-bank car park and walk down. The bank is steep; budget time and energy for the return walk up.
- Low tide exposes rock pools at the foot of the village and small fossil-bearing ledges on the shore. Check tide times before you go if beach access matters. For the broader picture on finding fossils along this coast, our guide to fossil hunting on the Yorkshire coast covers the best sites.
- For the Port Mulgrave circular walk (approximately 4 miles), download the route on the AllTrails app before you leave. Mobile signal in the lower village is patchy.
- The September festival fills the village. If you are visiting that weekend, book accommodation and arrive early in the morning before the artists open their spaces to the public.
- Dogs are welcome in the village and on the clifftop paths; keep them on leads near the cliff edge, particularly on the Port Mulgrave section of the Cleveland Way.
Reader Q&A
Is Staithes worth visiting?
Yes. It is one of the least altered fishing villages on the North Yorkshire coast, with a working harbour, a direct connection to Captain Cook’s early life, and a history of a Victorian artists’ colony that almost no visitor has heard of.
Can you park in Staithes?
Yes, but not in the lower village. The car park sits at the top of the bank; you walk down into the village from there. The descent takes around five minutes; the return is steeper than it looks.
Is Staithes near Whitby?
Yes. Staithes is approximately 10 miles north of Whitby by road, around a 20-minute drive on the A174. They share the same Heritage Coast but have different characters: Whitby is larger and busier; Staithes is quieter and almost entirely free of the commercial development that has changed most of the Yorkshire coast.
What is the Staithes Festival?
The Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage is an annual September event in which around 100 artists exhibit work in studios, homes, and pop-up spaces across the village. It honours the Staithes Group tradition and the history of the fishing community. In 2026, the festival runs from 12 to September 13, with a preview evening on September 11. Full information at staithesfestival.com.
The sea at the bottom of the street is still the same sea that persuaded a grocer’s boy to abandon the counter and never look back; find more Yorkshire travel in our travel section.
