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Park in the Pay and Display car park in Bank Top Lane. Cross the road, turn left and walk back towards the Runswick Bay Hotel.
Turn right into the hotel car park and follow the way-mark through to the field at the back.
There you will pick up the path along the edge of the fields to the cliff edge. Follow the cliff edge path until you get to Port Mulgrave, turn round and re-trace your steps.
There is an illustrated guide to the start of this walk on the National Trails web site.
Started in 1854, Port Mulgrave was once a busy harbour were iron ore mined from the surrounding hills was shipped to the ship builders on Tyneside.
The mines gradually closed and the coming of the railway in 1917 took the remaining trade away from the harbour.
It remained in good condition up until the Second World War when Royal Engineers smashed the breakwater in order the prevent the Germans from using it to launch an invasion.
On your left as you reach the cliff edge are two overgrown ponds. Built around 1856 these were reservoirs for the Victoria Iron and Cement Works, which was built on the unstable cliffs below.
In 1858 even before the works had opened, it was partly destroyed by a landslide, and it was not until 1862 that production got under way.
It was not a success and closed after two years. Further slippages have hidden most of the ruins, and only these two obscure ponds stand as a testament to the site.
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The combination of a massive landslip in 1664 and further slips over the years, along with the new access road built in 1962, the new houses associated with it and the sea wall of 1970, have left Runswick Bay looking very modern.
However tucked away up the back you can still find some older parts of the village with the narrow alleyways and higgledy-piggledy houses so characteristic of old fishing villages.
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