North Yorkshire boasts some of the most stunning countryside and amazing seaside anywhere in England, and its history is equally dramatic. Whitby Museum holds evidence of the great sea creatures that formerly populated this region millions of years ago. The soft shale rocks reveal and release fossils of remarkable sealife from small ammonites to giant plesiosaurs. This is truly the 'Dinosaur Coast'. From the southern areas around Filey to the far north of our story at Saltburn-by-the-Sea, each area has its own tales to tell.
Within these pages, we take a journey in words and full-colour pictures along Yorkshire's Dinosaur Coast. Discover the twentieth-century seaside resorts of Filey and Scarborough and the secret cliffs of Robin Hood's Bay. Visit the home of Dracula, the fishing villages of Staithes and Runswick Bay, and stand on the pier at Saltburn to watch the great ships that still service the area's industry. Wildlife, history, heritage and landscape combine to make the northern coastline of Yorkshire a fascinating place to visit.
Ian Rotherham is Professor of Environmental Geography and Reader in Tourism & Environmental Change at Sheffield Hallam University. An ecologist, historian, and tourism specialist, he is an authority on landscape history and on coastal areas and their tourism. Having visited the Yorkshire coasts regular for childhood holidays, he has been visiting, researching and writing about Yorkshire's coast for many years. He has published over 400 papers, articles, books and book chapters, has a popular BBC radio 'phone-in, and writes for local and regional newspapers. He lectures widely to local groups and works closely with the Wildlife Trusts, Natural England, English Heritage, the National Trust and the RSPB.