The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1Finden, W. (William)
History
The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1
Finden, W. (William)
Coasts -- Great Britain -- Pictorial works; Great Britain -- Pictorial works
Flamborough Head, which lies about eighteen miles southward of
Scarborough, and four and a half miles northward of Burlington, is one
of the most remarkable promontories on the eastern coast. It projects
about five miles into the sea, from a line drawn between Burlington Quay
and Filey; and its southern side forms the northern boundary of
Burlington Bay. The cliffs, which are of limestone rock, are from three
hundred to four hundred feet high, and their crumbling sides form the
haunt and the breeding place of innumerable flocks of sea-birds: among
which are cormorants, puffins, razor-bills, and guillemots, with gulls
and terns of several species. Guillemots, which are here extremely
numerous, are known to the seamen of Shields and Newcastle by the name
of "Flamborough-head pilots," as their presence in considerable numbers
is almost a certain indication of the ship being "off the Head." Great
numbers of those feathered denizens of the cliff are killed every year
by "parties of pleasure," from Burlington, Scarborough, and other
places, who visit the "Head" for the sake of indulging in the heartless
sport, which requires neither skill nor courage, of killing birds by
wholesale. At the foot of the cliff, which to the north-west is much
indented, there are several caverns and large insulated masses of rock.
The largest of those caverns, called Robert Lyth's Hole, has two
openings, the one communicating with the land and the other exposed to
the sea. The roof, though low at the landward entrance, is in some
places fifty feet high; and the view, looking through the rocky vault
towards the sea, is extremely grand.
Flamborough Head, which is a most important land-mark for vessels
navigating the eastern coast, lies in 54° 8' north latitude; longitude
2' 30" west. A revolving light is displayed from the lighthouse from
sunset to sunrise, and presents, first the appearance of two lights on
the same tower, and next a brilliant red light. Each of those lights
appears at intervals of two minutes; and after gradually attaining their
greatest lustre, they in the same manner decline and become eclipsed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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