Bempton Cliffs

Address: RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Cliff Ln, Bridlington YO15 1JF, UK

Grid ref: TA197738

What3Words: trickster.makeovers.figure

Bempton Cliffs, on the spectacular Yorkshire coast, is home to one of the UK's top wildlife spectacles. Around half a million seabirds gather here between March and October to raise a family on towering chalk cliffs which overlook the North Sea.

Plan your visit

Nature reserve: open daily, dawn-dusk.
Car park: open daily, dawn-dusk.
Visitor Centre: open daily, 9.30am-5pm (November-February 9.30am-4pm).
Shop: open daily, 9.30am-5pm (November-February 9.30am-4pm).
Café: open daily, 10am-4pm.
Toilets: open daily, 9.30am-5pm (November-February 9.30am-4pm).

Festive opening times

Christmas Eve: Nature reserve, visitor centre, shop, café and toilets open, 9.30am-3pm.
Christmas Day: Nature reserve, visitor centre, shop, café and toilets are closed.
Boxing Day: Nature reserve, visitor centre, shop, café and toilets are closed.
New Year’s Eve: Nature reserve open, dawn-dusk. Visitor centre, shop, café and toilets open, 10am-3pm.
New Year’s Day: Nature reserve open, dawn-dusk. Visitor centre, shop, café and toilets open, 10am-4pm.
All other days in the festive period are open our usual winter opening hours as above.

Free entrance to RSPB members: Yes

Adults: £6 (March-October) / £3 (November-February)

Children: £3 (March-October) / £1.50 (November-February)
Free entrance for first child
Free entrance for under 5s

Student: £4.50 (March-October) / (£2.50 November-February)

Free entrance for carers: Yes

Facilities

Visitor centre
Car park
Toilets
Accessible toilets
Baby changing
Pushchair friendly
Café
Binocular hire
Guided walks
Viewing point
Nature trails
Shop
Educational facilities

Accessibility

Full accessibility information (external website)

How to get here

By train

The nearest station is Bempton, on the Hull/Scarborough line. There is a walk of approx 1 1/4 miles from the station to the reserve.

By bus

There is currently no bus service to the reserve or nearby Bempton village.

By road

The reserve is a 30 minute drive from Scarborough and around 10 minutes from Bridlington. Follow the brown signs from the main roads. Or key YO15 1JF into your Sat Nav.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

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Dogs are welcome on the footpaths around the reserve.

Please keep your dog on a lead and under close, effective control at all times, due to the sensitive wildlife and habitats here. We know that the countryside is a dog walking paradise. It’s important to remember the special surroundings here are wonderful havens for rare wildlife so we’ve created dog-friendly routes for you and your pooch to enjoy. Even if dogs are very well behaved, wildlife can easily become startled by a loose dog they perceive as a predator.

Disturbing wildlife does more than simply causing it to move away; it uses up their energy, decreasing their chance of survival regardless of season. Thank you for protecting the special wildlife here by keeping your dog on a lead.

Dogs are welcome on all trails.
Dog water bowls are available at the back and front of the visitor centre.
Dogs are permitted in the visitor centre.
Dogs die in hot cars, please do not leave your dog in the car when visiting us.

For details on our exciting programme of curriculum-linked outdoor education sessions, visit our school trips information.

'Amazing' and 'awesome' are just two of the words schools have used to describe their visit to the cliff tops. The incredible seabird spectacle provides the perfect backdrop for a memorable day of learning. The seabirds provide an up-close experience which can be used to explore topics such as habitats, food chains and adaptations.

We have a number of programmes to choose from, each one is designed to last two hours, with sessions running from 10am-12pm, and 1pm-3pm, or combine two into a day visit.

And if you'd like to book, contact schoolbookings@rspb.org.uk.

Also, check out our fantastic range of resources for teachers, or take on the Schools’ Wild Challenge.

Downloads

Helping you find your way around. PDF, 217Kb

Bempton Cliffs trail guide

Contact Bempton Cliffs

RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Cliff Ln, Bridlington YO15 1JF, UK
bempton.cliffs@rspb.org.uk
01262 422212
@Bempton_Cliffs
Find us on facebook

What will you see?

Our star species

Gannet

Look for stunning gannets cruising around the cliffs and rearing their hungry chicks.

Guillemot

Crammed onto the narrowest cliff ledges, the endearing guillemots bustle for space holding one precious egg between their feet. Once hatched it’s only a matter of weeks before the chicks jump from the cliffs to the relative safety of the sea.

Puffin

Enjoy the comical antics of puffins from mid-April to mid-July. Watch the adults returning from fishing forays at sea with sand eels hanging from their colourful beaks.

Barn owl

The iconic barn owl makes Bempton Cliffs its home year-round. Late afternoon is a great time to see barn owls gliding over the fields in search of a tasty vole or two.

Tree sparrow

Our rare colony of tree sparrows are resident all year round and can be seen in most places on the reserve.

Nature spectacles

Almost half a million seabirds cram onto ledges here, pitched high above the waves. Chris Packham called it the 'Nou Camp of the bird world'. This is life on the edge - the sights, sounds and smells of soaring and swooping seabirds combined with panoramic sea views is unforgettable.

In winter, the reserve is a hot spot for migrants such as redwings and goldcrests and rarities can drop in unannounced. Short-eared and barn owls can often be seen hunting across the nearby fields. Our chirpy tree sparrow colony is a cheery spectacle all year round.

Breeding seabirds start to return, including gannets, puffins, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, kittiwakes, herring gulls and shags. Farmland birds such as skylarks, tree sparrows, linnets, meadow pipits and reed and corn buntings can be seen. Porpoises can often be seen on calm days while early morning visits may provide sightings of roe deer.

The seabird breeding season is in full swing as nearly half a million seabirds cling to the cliffs. Breeding tree sparrows, whitethroats, corn buntings, skylarks, linnets, reed buntings, rock and meadow pipits can all be seen. A range of the more common butterflies may be seen on sunny days, along with day-flying moths such as cinnabars, burnet moths and occasionally hummingbird hawkmoths. Trailside flora is dominated by red campion.

Most of the seabirds have gone, but gannets are here into October. The autumnal migration can be exciting at Bempton Cliffs owing to its coastal location and being on a headland. Short-eared owls begin to arrive to stay for the winter and there's the arrival of migrants such as willow warblers, chiffchaffs, whitethroats, lesser whitethroats, reed warblers, sedge warblers, goldcrests, stonechats, whinchats, wheatears and redstarts.

Scarce species occur annually such as red-backed shrikes and yellow-browed warblers. October is the best time to witness the winter thrush arrival, often hundreds of redwings, blackbirds, song thrushes and fieldfares occur along with occasional ring ouzels.

This is normally a quiet time of year, but our bracing cliff top walks and fantastic seascapes are probably the best in Yorkshire. A small number of short-eared owls winter here. The Wildlife Garden offers food and shelter to a range of more common garden birds as well as our colony of tree sparrows. The cliff face attracts very few birds except for occasional herring gulls and fulmars, but by January gannets will return in good numbers with occasional days of guillemots in good numbers too.

About Bempton Cliffs

Habitat

The huge white chalk cliffs at Bempton are impressive at any time of year. But from April to October they are transformed into England’s largest seabird city, where puffins, gannets, kittiwakes and guillemots live life on the edge. There are more gannets acrobatically diving into the deep here, than anywhere else on mainland England.

But it’s not all about the cliffs. In spring and summer corn buntings, skylarks and linnets breed in the grassland and scrub where land meets the sea, while short eared owls hunt under wide open skies in winter.

Conservation

Our Bempton Cliffs reserve is a special place. The 5km of sea cliffs are internationally important because of the huge numbers of seabirds which raise their young here in spring and summer. Throughout this noisy breeding season, we check up on them with regular patrols to make sure they are not disturbed.

Beyond the cliffs, we manage the reserve to benefit a huge array of wildlife, including seals and porpoises that can be found swimming in the waves below.

The grassland and scrub at the top of the cliffs are home to tree sparrows, skylarks and linnets. Short eared owls return each winter to hunt and we see many migrant birds resting here as they pass through on their long journeys. We manage this land in ways that increase the populations of insects and small mammals on which these birds feed. Our Wildlife Garden is always worth a look for the large numbers of birds that call in for breakfast, lunch and tea.

With such a variety of birds the reserve is a popular one, and a great place to learn about many of the issues affecting our wildlife. Our team can help you get closer to the wildlife, from capturing the sights of a gannet diving into the blue sea, to glimpsing the brightly coloured beak of a puffin returning to its young, whilst also being able to put these encounters into perspective and explain the threats facing these wonderful birds.

Partners

Bempton Cliffs was transformed in 2015 thanks to a redevelopment project. We are grateful to our funders for their help: Heritage Lottery Fund, Coastal Communities Fund, Biffa Award.

We are also grateful to RDPE Leader for our Discovery Shelter - a new hub providing additional indoor space for school & group activities all year round and part funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

Site information

Bempton’s internationally important seabirds means it has special protection. It is both a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). Find out more about Nature Designations in England here.

The reserve is the best place to see some of the half million seabirds which breed between Bempton and Flamborough every year. Six, safe cliff-edge viewing platforms give you stunning close-up views of life on the edge.

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Activities and events

Activities for children and families

We have self-guided trails (including a Puffin Trail, Gannet Trail and Scavenger Bug Hunt Trail) and Discovery Backpacks for hire throughout the year. The backpacks contain binoculars, spotter sheets, a bird book and magnifying bug pot so that kids can explore the reserve and get closer to nature. Add to this our Wildlife Walks (which run from May to end August), and our Binocular and Telescope Open Weekends and there are activities to suit everyone.

For more information on events and to book tickets, please visit events.rspb.org.uk/bemptoncliffs

Leisure activities

Every year from May to September, we run a number of spectacular seabird cruises from nearby Bridlington Harbour. Puffin and gannet cruises take you to the seabird colony for close-up views of puffins, gannets, guillemots and more. Our Diving Gannet cruises capture the UK's largest seabird diving into the North Sea for food. And our single Seabird Pelagic Cruise heads out to sea in search of skuas, terns, shearwaters and more. Full cruise details and dates are given in the events listings.

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