Roger Ratcliffe explores rock pools at Yorkshire's most spectacular reef

Saltwick Nab between Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay is one of the English coastline's most spectacular reefs.
Saltwick Nab is one of the coastline's most impressive reefs, writes Roger Ratcliffe.Saltwick Nab is one of the coastline's most impressive reefs, writes Roger Ratcliffe.
Saltwick Nab is one of the coastline's most impressive reefs, writes Roger Ratcliffe.

It must be a terrifying sight however when first glimpsed from a ship’s bridge in a violent winter gale. There have been several wrecks there over the decades, the most famous being that of the naval hospital ship SS Rohilla on 30th October 1914 with the loss of 83 lives.

When I visited on a glorious spring morning, the North Sea was calm, blue and glittering and not a single ripple seemed to break on the Nab. All was perfectly calm and it could easily have been a scene from a tropical island.

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Dramatic though the reef looks when approached by the Cleveland Way footpath on the overlooking cliffs, it is best viewed from the sheltered beach of Saltwick Bay, which is accessed down steep steps from a caravan park.

Once on the shore, turn to the left and you can see the Nab and its old alum quarries. These quarries were closed in 1791 and are now listed as Ancient Monuments. From medieval times alum was used in the textile industry as a fixative for dyes.

To the right is Black Nab, another fearsome rock responsible for several more wrecks over the years, the most recent being the Scarborough trawler Admiral Von Tromp in October 1976 in which two crewmen died.

As with anywhere along this dramatic coastline visitors must tread carefully and be alert to tidal movements. Even so, venturing onto Saltwick Nab is definitely not for the faint-hearted. But it is a rewarding adventure, not least as a way of exploring the mysterious world of intertidal rock pools.

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It is said of rock pools that each one is an ocean in microcosm, but with the exception that crustaceans, fish and other inhabitants face the twice-daily challenge of incoming and outgoing tides. Some have been specially equipped to deal with life in the so-called splash zone, such as the limpet’s ability to remain steadfastly attached to a rock. This it can do even when seaside foragers try to prise it off with a knife, so it can certainly handle crashing waves.

The strength of the incoming tide is just one of the hazards faced by the 30 or so species of marine life typically found in rock pools.

At Saltwick I arrived in time to see a herring gull pulling out a whelk in its beak. Then it flew almost vertically into the air, dropped it onto the rocks below to smash the shell and went down to eat its meal.

To see the life of a rock pool you need to creep up on it cautiously, because the inhabitants’ survival depends on them being keenly aware of movement above the surface. Small shrimps, for example, quickly find a secure hiding place in a crevice.

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For my efforts on that fine spring morning, I managed to enjoy the sight of a rock goby, a lovely little fish with a large head. For just a few seconds I observed it resting on the bottom of the pool before it flicked its tail and shot into a clump of bladderwrack.

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