retiredmartin

Redcar hasn’t had the best of times lately with the closure of Teesside Steel and other sad news this week.  It’s also been some way down the list as far as visitors to the North Yorkshire coast are concerned.

It has numerous merits though.  The beach is wonderful, the walks into the foothills of the Moors are strenuous, and the views of chemical plants rivals those from Runcorn Hill.

Wilton is a small village just south of the petrochemical walk, and recommended as a base for hikes. It’s also handy for the wonderful Lazenby Social Club, where I had one of the best halves of Bass ever, partly due to being slightly chilled.

I’d never really thought of Redcar as a seaside resort, but on Good Friday it was full of day trippers avoiding queues on the A171 to Whitby, and the town centre looked no different to North Kent’s smaller seaside towns like Herne Bay.

We had lunch in Turners Mill, the lone Guide entry (the Spoons seemingly out of favour). This newish Ember Inn is one of their more attractive externally, though suffering from the usual identikit interior.

The beer range was much too large, but packed with well known brands including and almost flat Pedigree I enjoyed a lot (NBSS 3.5).  Their cheap lunch menu is a false economy though.  Service was spectacularly disorganised, providing the sort of theatre you often get in chain pubs where folk expect food to come out in ten minutes to keep children happy.

The walk along Redcar beach (the Stray) in an unexpected heatwave takes us to Marske, a workaday village with a classic drinkers pub in the Clarendon. Worth the ridiculously low cost of a half of Theakston (NBSS 3) for that carpet, and a Sam Smiths type atmosphere.

Excellent walks and beer quality around Redcar, which may not be enough to tempt holiday makers in their thousands back but a Travelodge or Premier Inn would certainly get a few adventurous tourists.  The chemical plant at night is something worth travelling to see.