Bempton Cliffs is a section of precipitous coast at Bempton in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is run by the

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

and is known for its breeding seabirds, including

northern gannet The northern gannet (''Morus bassanus'') is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in t ...

Atlantic puffin The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family (biology), family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin being found ...

razorbill The razorbill (''Alca torda'') is a North Atlantic colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus ''Alca (bird), Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinus impennis' ...

common guillemot The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...

, black-legged kittiwake and

fulmar The fulmars are tube-nosed seabirds in the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species, and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on s ...

. There is a visitor centre.

Location

The hard

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

cliffs at Bempton rise are relatively resistant to

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

and offer many sheltered headlands and crevices for nesting birds. The cliffs run about from

Flamborough Head Flamborough Head () is a promontory, long on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, with sheer white cliffs. The cliff top has two standing lighthouse towers, the olde ...

north towards

Filey Filey () is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located between Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough and Bridlington on Filey Bay. Although it was a fishing village, it has a large ...

and are over high at points. The cliffs at Bempton are some of the highest chalk cliffs in England, Beachy Head in East Sussex being the highest at . The area administered by the RSPB also includes Buckton Cliffs. There are good walkways along the top of the cliffs and several well fenced and protected observation points.

Gannets

Bempton Cliffs is home to the only mainland breeding colony of gannets in England. The birds arrive at the colony from January and leave in August and September.

Kittiwakes

Numerically the most common bird, around 10% of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

population of kittiwakes (''Rissa tridactyla'') nest here.

Puffins

The

s (''Fratercula arctica'') at Bempton Cliffs tend to nest in rock crevices, whereas burrows are used at most UK sites. Although there are estimated to be around 958 birds (450 breeding pairs), it is relatively difficult to get a close view of them. The puffins along the Yorkshire coast are now endangered. The Bempton puffins mostly fly east to the

Dogger Bank Dogger Bank ( Dutch: ''Doggersbank'', German: ''Doggerbank'', Danish: ''Doggerbanke'') is a large sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea about off the east coast of England. During the last ice age, the bank was part of a large landmass ...

to feed. Their numbers may however be adversely affected by a reduction in local sand eel numbers caused by

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

, in turn caused by

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

being driven north by the 2 degree rise in local sea temperatures.

Artwork

A series of 22 panels of phonetic birdsong by artist Adrian Riley were commissioned by the RSPB in 2017 and are installed across the site near habitats appropriate to the birdsong in each panel.

In fiction

The cliffs play an important role in Belinda Bauer's 2025 novel ''The Impossible Thing'', which focuses on the search for a rare red guillemot egg robbed from the cliffs.

References

External links

RSPB Bempton Cliffs

Information Britain entry

Walks around Bempton Cliffs

Yorkshire Coast Nature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bempton Cliffs Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves in England RSPB visitor centres in England Birdwatching sites in England Cliffs of England Protected areas of the East Riding of Yorkshire Nature reserves in the East Riding of Yorkshire Yorkshire coast