Whitby - Geography and Geology

Geography and Geology

Whitby is situated on the east coast of Yorkshire facing the North Sea in a deep valley at the mouth of the River Esk. It has been a bridging point since at least medieval times and several bridges have spanned the river. The current bridge, built in 1908, is a swing bridge with a 75-foot (23 m) span that separates the upper and lower harbours which have a total area of around 80.1 acres (32.40 ha). The houses are built of brick or stone, often with red pantiled roofs, in narrow, steep streets, on both sides of the river.

The town is surrounded on its landward sides by the moorland of the North York Moors National Park and the North Sea abuts it on the seaward side. The coastal areas are designated part of the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Heritage Coast. This stretch of coast, known as the 'Dinosaur Coast', the 'Fossil Coast' or the 'Jurassic Coast', is around 35 miles (56 km) long, stretching from Staithes in the north, to Flamborough in the East Riding of Yorkshire. At Whitby dinosaur footprints are visible on the beach. The rock strata contain fossils and organic remains including jet. Fossils include the petrified bones of an almost complete crocodile and a specimen of plesiosaurus measuring 15 feet 6 inches (4.72 m) in length, and 8 feet 5 inches (2.57 m) in breadth was discovered in 1841. Smaller fossils include ammonite, or "snake stones" from the alum shales and at Whitby Scar and nautilites in the lower beds of the lias strata. The Hildoceras genus of ammonite is named in honour of St. Hilda of Whitby. The Rotunda Museum in Scarborough has a comprehensive collection of fossils from the area.

The harbour and the mouth of the River Esk are on a geological fault. On the east side the cliff is tall, 187 feet (57 m), and consists of alternating layers of shale, sandstone and clay. On the west side the cliff is much lower and has a deep capping of boulder clay over a sandstone base making it less stable and liable to slippage. Both cliffs are being eroded quite rapidly.