Walking in the Footsteps of Dinosaurs (And Smugglers) By Alan Moore Platinum Quality Author

Although the moors are rich with attractions, just exploring the coast around Whitby can be enough to occupy a whole holiday. Whether you have an interest in fossils, would like to see if you can find any of your own Whitby Jet, or would simply like to see some more of the small villages so unique to this part of North Yorkshire, Whitby makes an ideal starting point.

Robin Hood's Bay

Perhaps the best-known of the villages near to Whitby is Robin Hood's Bay. Nestled at the bottom of a very steep hill and surrounded by vertical cliffs, Robin Hood's Bay is one of the most charismatic and remote settlements on the Yorkshire coast.

First mentioned in 1536, Robin Hood's Bay was for many years an exceptionally self-contained and isolated fishing village, whose residents were almost completely self-sufficient. However, in the 17th and 18th centuries at least some residents must have had links further afield - as Robin Hood's Bay became infamous as the most active smuggling centre on the North Yorkshire coast.

Helped by their remote location and by the inhospitable moorland which surround their village, the fishermen of Robin Hood's Bay carried on a determined trade in illicit goods, often resulting in pitched battles with the local excise men - such were the potential profits of smuggling.

Virtually the whole community was behind the free traders' efforts, and it is said that contraband could pass from the bottom of the village to the top without leaving the houses, whose network of secret passages and storage rooms made life extremely difficult for Her Majesty's enforcement officers.

Eventually changes in duty levels made smuggling less attractive, and the introduction of motorised fishing boats made the Bay's small sailing cobles less economically-viable. The onset of World War I meant that many men left the Bay, and it proved to be the beginning of a period of decline for the area. Since then, however, tourism in the North Yorkshire Moors has continued to grow, and this has led to the purchase and sympathetic restoration of many of the Bay's old cottages as holiday lets.

Today, Robin Hood's Bay is a thriving small community, favoured by artists and writers and extremely popular as a holiday destination.

Alan Moore invites you to join his free email newsletter The Whitby Bite: http://www.dracula-in-whitby.com/whitby-bite.html where you can learn more about the real Dracula and his connection to Whitby, Yorkshire's unique vampire town.

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