Old man of Raincliffe Woods

‘thence let me wander mid the pathless wilds of Raincliff, who,
with intertwisted leaves, arches the bowers of silence’

Foster, M. 1770. Scarborough. A Poem in Three Cantos. York: Publisher Ann Ward

The woods form a continuous belt of trees extending for a distance of nearly five miles from East Ayton in the west to the A170 Racecourse Road at Stepney Hill in the east, around the steep west, north and north-east sides of East Ayton, Irton and Seamer Moors. The woods have been in public ownership since they were purchased by Scarborough Corporation in 1926.

The Domesday Survey (1086) records areas of woodland in the entries for East Ayton, Seamer and the lost settlement of Hillgrips. In the Survey, the area of woodland belonging to East Ayton is 9 furlongs by 9 furlongs (just over a mile by a mile) which is approximately the same as the length of the woods in Forge Valley and Raincliffe that fall within the historic boundary of East Ayton township.