Ravenscar: One of the finest scenes on the Yorkshire coast - with its own colony of seals

It remained operational until approximately 410AD and provided early warning of invasion from the North Sea by marauding forces including the Picts, the Attacotti, the Scots, the Franks and the Saxons.

Other signal stations were sited at Whitby East Cliff, Scarborough, Filey Brigg, Flamborough and possibly at Spurn.

Alum - a colourless substance used as a fixer by the dyeing industry - was discovered and mined here in the Middle Ages, but following the development of synthetic fixers the last alum works closed in 1871.

The site is now preserved by the National Trust.

In 1885 a railway station serving the scattered community of Ravenscar was built on the Scarborough-Whitby line but closed as part of the Beeching cuts in 1965.

The clifftop is occupied by the grand edifice of Raven Hall Hotel and grounds. The original hall was built in 1763 by then owner of the alum works, William Childs, a captain in the King’s Regiment of (Light) Dragoons.

At the end of the 19th century his family sold the estate for the development of a holiday resort they envisaged would be a rival to Scarborough and Whitby.

Plots were sold off, sewers and streets laid out and some houses built, but in 1911 the company filed for bankruptcy and today visitors can only picture how it would have looked.

There is a 300-plus colony of mainly grey seals on the headland’s rocky shore, many of which can be seen lounging on large flat rocks beneath the cliffs.