- Where
- Flamborough headland, East Riding
of Yorkshire, England - Coordinates
- 54.15° N
0.17° W (the reserve, approx.) - Seabirds
- Around half a million,
March to August (RSPB) - Special Protection Area
- Flamborough and Filey Coast;
first classified March 1993 - Puffins
- April to mid-July
(RSPB) - Best visited
- April to July, the colony at its
fullest (RSPB) - Advisory
- United Kingdom Level 2
(terrorism)
White cliffs dropping into a grey sea, a bird on every ledge and another bird disagreeing with it. The noise came up the cliff before the smell did, and the smell was considerable. Big white birds with butter-yellow heads folded themselves into darts and went into the water like dropped cutlery. Farm fields ran up to the fence behind me. I leaned on the rail and forgot the wind.
The short answer
Bempton Cliffs is a nature reserve of the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, on the white chalk cliffs of the Yorkshire coast near Bridlington, overlooking the North Sea. The RSPB says around half a million seabirds gather on the cliffs between March and August to breed, among them puffins, gannets, kittiwakes and guillemots, and that between April and July the cliffs become England’s largest seabird city. Corn buntings, skylarks and linnets breed in the grassland and scrub on the cliff top in spring and summer, kestrels and barn owls hunt there, and short-eared owls often join them in winter. The reserve is part of the Flamborough headland and lies inside the recording area of the Flamborough Bird Observatory. The cliffs belong to the Flamborough and Filey Coast Special Protection Area, which the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) records as first classified in March 1993; the site covers 7,857.99 hectares, 97 per cent of it sea.
Why it's worth knowing
The seabird city you can walk to. The RSPB calls Bempton one of the most accessible seabird colonies in Europe: the walk from the visitor centre to the cliff top and on to the Bartlett Nab viewpoint is level. The JNCC’s record for the Special Protection Area, updated in September 2018, gives the counts behind the designation. The site regularly supports more than 1 per cent of the biogeographical population of four migratory seabirds: 89,040 breeding adult black-legged kittiwakes (counted 2008–2011), 16,938 northern gannets (2008–2012), 83,214 common guillemots (2008–2011), which the record puts at 15.6 per cent of their population, and 21,140 razorbills. Its whole breeding assemblage averaged 216,730 seabirds in 2008–2012, including more than 2,000 northern fulmars. The RSPB’s round figure of half a million and the JNCC’s count measure different things in different years, and neither is a forecast for a given summer. Of the puffins, the RSPB says they are red-listed in the UK and at risk of global extinction, threatened by predators that eat their eggs and chicks and by a loss of food made worse by overfishing.
From egg harvest to reserve. The Yorkshire Marine Nature Partnership, which hosts Yorkshire’s marine protected area management group, tells the cliffs’ older story on a storyboard at the reserve’s Jubilee viewpoint. Local people known as climmers abseiled down the sheer chalk using just a harness and a single rope to collect guillemot, razorbill and kittiwake eggs, taking care not to over-harvest and leaving every third egg to secure the next year’s supply. Back on the cliff top the eggs were sorted: some went home to be eaten, others were auctioned to egg collectors, and some were sold for sugar refining and the making of patent leather. Seabirds were also once killed here for their plumage, the partnership says. For centuries before what it calls the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1954, climming gave families food and a small but much needed income; collecting birds’ eggs is now illegal.
The field notes
Gannets off the chalk
The RSPB writes of sleek gannets arriving back for a bustling breeding season, and says more gannets dive into the sea at Bempton than anywhere else on mainland England. The JNCC record counted 16,938 breeding adult northern gannets on the Flamborough and Filey Coast between 2008 and 2012, which it put at 2.6 per cent of the North Atlantic population. The reserve’s events include seabird cruises, the RSPB says, for a view from the water.
Puffins on the edge
To see puffins nesting on the cliff edge, the RSPB advises planning a visit between April and mid-July. It describes them as colourful and clown-like, and names predators and food shortage, made worse by overfishing, as their threats; it campaigns for more protected areas for them on land and at sea. The JNCC’s designation counts do not include puffins among the four qualifying species, which are the kittiwake, the gannet, the guillemot and the razorbill.
Owls and buntings on the cliff top
Away from the ledges, the RSPB says, corn buntings, skylarks and linnets breed in the grassland and scrub where land meets sea, while kestrels and barn owls hunt under the open sky and short-eared owls often join them in winter, along with wintering buntings. The headland’s sightings are logged by the Flamborough Bird Observatory, whose recording area covers most of the headland and includes the reserve; the RSPB says the observatory updates its sightings page every day.
A gannet hanging in the air over a cove below the cliffs.
Photograph: P Mantha via Unsplash · Unsplash licence · cropped
A gannet landing on a chalk ledge with grass for its nest.
Photograph: Tony Williams via Unsplash · Unsplash licence · cropped
A gannet on the cliff edge at Bempton Cliffs.
Photograph: Carrie O’Leary via Unsplash · Unsplash licence · cropped
- Walk the cliff-top path and stop at every viewpoint, even the ones that look the same from the car park. They are not the same.
- Hold the list with both hands at the rail. (Held it with one. A page is now somewhere below, being sat on.)
- Stay behind the fence and keep your voice down. Every ledge down there is somebody’s nursery.
- Learn to tell the two black-and-white birds apart before you leave. (Failed. Entered them as the tidy one and the other one.)
- Look out to sea for a while, not only down. The white ones keep coming home from somewhere, and it is worth watching them arrive.
A guillemot’s egg on a chalk ledge. The JNCC’s record for the Flamborough and Filey Coast counted 83,214 breeding adult common guillemots between 2008 and 2011, and the Yorkshire Marine Nature Partnership says their eggs, with those of razorbills and kittiwakes, were once collected by the climmers, who were lowered down the cliffs on a single rope and left every third egg so the colony would be there the next year. Collecting birds’ eggs is now illegal; the ledges are watched from the cliff-top path, and the eggs are for looking at.
Tally, in the marginAn egg on a shelf hardly wider than itself, above a very long drop. I watched one for most of an afternoon before I noticed I was holding my pencil with both hands, and I did not loosen my grip until I was back at the car park.
Getting there
How to get there. The RSPB gives the reserve’s address as Bempton Cliffs, Cliff Lane, Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, YO15 1JF. Bempton has a railway station managed by Northern, which National Rail lists as unstaffed, with ticket machines and step-free access to all platforms (category A). The RSPB’s location page refused our request, so the walk from the station to the reserve is not given here. The RSPB encourages visitors to cycle or walk to the reserve and has bike racks outside the visitor centre; cycling on the footpaths is not allowed.
When to go. The RSPB says the seabirds gather from March to August, that the colony is at its fullest from April to July, and that puffins nest on the cliff edge from April to mid-July. Short-eared owls and wintering buntings are the cliff top’s winter birds, and the RSPB calls the chalk cliffs impressive at any time of year.
What to arrange ahead. The RSPB’s prices and opening hours load on its pages by script and were not readable for this entry; its accessibility notes give the visitor centre’s accessible toilet as open daily from 9.30am to 5pm. Groups of ten or more, and external tours, are asked to book ahead, and the car park takes two coaches a day. The reserve’s two Tramper mobility scooters are free to use, with advance booking recommended.
Access. The RSPB lists 11 Blue Badge parking spaces and a drop-off point outside the visitor centre, a level-access visitor centre and shop, a level walk to the cliff top and on to the Bartlett Nab viewpoint, two Tramper scooters and two push wheelchairs, and no height barrier on the car park. It allows no overnight parking or camping and cannot take touring caravans. Dogs are welcome on the footpaths and in the visitor centre on a short lead at all times; barbecues are not permitted, and drones may not take off or land on the reserve without the site team’s permission.
Safety. The US State Department has the United Kingdom at Level 2, exercise increased caution, due to terrorism (advisory dated 9 September 2026), and says petty crime is common in popular tourist locations.
Mark this place
Common questions
When can you see puffins at Bempton Cliffs?
The RSPB advises visiting its Bempton Cliffs reserve in Yorkshire between April and mid-July to see puffins nesting on the cliff edge. It says around half a million seabirds gather on the chalk cliffs between March and August, with the colony at its fullest from April to July.
How many seabirds nest at Bempton Cliffs?
The RSPB says around half a million seabirds gather on the chalk cliffs at Bempton between March and August. The JNCC’s official record for the Flamborough and Filey Coast Special Protection Area gives an average breeding assemblage of 216,730 seabirds, counted between 2008 and 2012.
Are there gannets at Bempton Cliffs?
Yes. The RSPB says more gannets dive into the sea at Bempton Cliffs than anywhere else on mainland England. The JNCC record for the Flamborough and Filey Coast counted 16,938 breeding adult northern gannets between 2008 and 2012, 2.6 per cent of the North Atlantic population.
Who were the climmers of Bempton?
The climmers were local people who abseiled down the chalk cliffs of the Flamborough and Bempton coast on a single rope to collect guillemot, razorbill and kittiwake eggs, the Yorkshire Marine Nature Partnership says. They left every third egg, and climming ended with a bird-protection law in 1954.
What accessibility facilities does RSPB Bempton Cliffs list?
The RSPB lists 11 Blue Badge spaces, a level-access visitor centre and shop, a level walk to the cliff top and the Bartlett Nab viewpoint, two Tramper mobility scooters (booking recommended, free to use) and two push wheelchairs at its Bempton Cliffs reserve in Yorkshire.
Can you get to Bempton Cliffs by train?
Bempton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has a railway station managed by Northern, which National Rail lists as unstaffed with step-free access to all platforms. The RSPB gives the reserve’s address as Cliff Lane, Bridlington, YO15 1JF, and encourages visitors to walk or cycle there.
What is the Flamborough and Filey Coast Special Protection Area?
The Flamborough and Filey Coast is a Special Protection Area for seabirds on the Yorkshire coast, first classified in March 1993, the JNCC records. It covers 7,857.99 hectares, 97 per cent of them sea, and qualifies for its kittiwakes, gannets, guillemots, razorbills and a breeding assemblage of over 200,000 seabirds.
What birds can you see at Bempton Cliffs in winter?
In winter the RSPB’s Bempton Cliffs reserve in Yorkshire has short-eared owls hunting over the cliff-top grassland, often alongside kestrels and barn owls, and wintering buntings. The RSPB calls the white chalk cliffs impressive at any time of year.
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