The Robin Hood Connection…

The name Robin Hood’s Bay has always held a romantic charm for me, despite the fact that the folk lore and tales of his adventures with Little John never mentioned the sea.

From the beginning of the walk at Ennerdale Bridge there is mention of ‘Robin Hood’s Chair’ this is a small headland jutting out into the lake at Angler’s Crag.

On day 6 of the walk from Shap to Orton we came across the map reference to ‘Robin Hood’s Grave’. At Crosby Ravensworth Fell near a dried-up stream-bed is a large pile of stones with the fanciful name of our hero. The great Forest of Sherwood did extend much further north than it does today. While Robin’s trusty lieutenant, Little John, is said to lie buried in a churchyard in Hathersage in the Peak district, Maid Marion, apparently originally came from Wakefield, and dear Robin travelled around quite a bit. If the legendary hero’s dying wish that he should be buried at the spot where his final arrow came to rest is to be believed, it would call for monumental quantities of credulity to believe he had the strength to flight it this far! His generally accepted resting place is at Kirkless, near Leeds.

The last day of the walk officially takes in the village of Hawsker near Whitby. The story goes that both Robin and Little John, were accommodated at Whitby Abbey, where they were invited to demonstrate their archery skills. From the top of an abbey tower they each fired an arrow to the southeast and both landed on Whitby Laithes, now a farm near Hawsker. So impressed was the abbot with these shots that he ordered standing stones to be fixed where the arrows had landed, and to this day those places, Robin Hood Field and Little John Field, are still shown on maps (GR9109).

And so the final stage of the walk is Robin Hood’s Bay.
Legend has it that Robin Hood found a quiet bay on the edge of the northern moors and decided on this as an ideal retreat from danger. Here, under the name of Simon Wise, he returned many times, keeping a small fleet of fishing boats, which he used to put to sea whenever danger threatened.

And so the romantic sounding name of Robin Hood’s Bay was the chosen setting for our honeymoon all those years ago.

This entry was posted on 23/05/2007 at 04:27 pm and is filed under Progress report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.