Bempton Cliffs

Bempton Cliffs is a section of precipitous coast at Bempton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is run by the RSPB as a nature reserve and is known for its breeding seabirds, including northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, razorbill, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake and fulmar. There is a visitor centre.^[1]

Bempton Cliffs
Cliff
Staple Newk stack at Bempton Cliffs, UK, viewed from the New Roll Up viewing platform.
Bempton Cliffs
Coordinates: 54.146111°N 0.160278°W / 54.146111; -0.160278
Grid position	TA 201 738
Location	East Riding of Yorkshire, England

Location

The hard chalk cliffs at Bempton rise are relatively resistant to erosion and offer many sheltered headlands and crevices for nesting birds. The cliffs run about 6 miles (10 km) from Flamborough Head north towards Filey and are over 330 feet (100 m) 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 530 feet (160 m).^[2] The area administered by the RSPB also includes Buckton Cliffs.^[3]

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.^[4] 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 population of kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) nest here.

Puffins

The Atlantic puffins (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.^[5] The puffins along the Yorkshire coast are now endangered.

The Bempton puffins mostly fly 25 miles (40 km) east to the Dogger Bank to feed. Their numbers may however be adversely affected by a reduction in local sand eel numbers caused by global warming, in turn caused by plankton being driven north by the 2 degree rise in local sea temperatures.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[7]