Saltburn Cliff Tramway

If you do like to be beside the seaside, but don't want to trundle down Saltburn's 173 sandy steps to be beside the sea, there's an alternative option! This North Yorkshire coastal town is home to the unique and alluring Saltburn Cliff Tramway.

It's a curious piece of machinery that identifies as a cliff lift, a Tramway and a Funicular (Funiculì, Funiculà)...I'll stop now!

Its claim to fame is that it's the oldest water-balanced funicular in the UK and the second oldest in the whole wide world! But what the holy moly is a funicular? Well, let me tell you that translated from French it means a cord under tension. What's particular about a funicular is that it has two cars, carriages or trains (call them what you fancy) that are counterbalanced and attached to opposite ends of the cable, looped over a pulley system. The two carriages move synchronously, like Torvill and Dean, and as one goes up, the other goes down.

The main thing is that it has fun in its name, so it must be good!

Historically the cliff lift is a link between the town and the pier. It has two stations, the top and the bottom! Built between 1883 and 1884 to replace its predecessor, a vertical hoist up the cliffs, each of the carriages takes 12 people up the 37 meter drop over a track of 63 meters.

The transition of the lifts was regulated by a brakeman at the top who added or removed water to the tanks. Although the carriages have been updated, much of the mechanism which runs the lift remains the same.

The cliff lift is a popular tourist attraction in Saltburn and although little can be seen from the top, the station and carriages cut a nifty cleft in the cliff and stand out in their eye catching carmine and cream livery.

With the advent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, holidaymakers flocked via Redcar to the North Yorkshire Coast at the end of the 1800s and as tourism boomed, local businesses capitalised on the area's assets and maximised potential for growth.

A promenade along the newly constructed Saltburn Pier, completed in 1869 was a dreamy way to while away an afternoon with one's beau, but imagine the kerfuffle of getting your bustle down those 173 steps? The Saltburn Pier Company, keen to pull in the punters paid for a solution which was a lift.

But just thirteen years later, when the pier was sold to its new owners at The Middlesbrough Estate, the lift was condemned as more often than not, it would give up the ghost half way down. Maybe it was something to do with the rotting timbers!

In 1884 a new lift was opened. This saw a peremptory extension to the pier, attempting to encourage more holidaymakers to Saltburn. The lifts were decorated with stained glass and the cars in their familiar blood and custard livery stood proud of the cliffside.

Nothing much has changed over the last 140 years bar the odd paint job, refurb, windows replaced in 1955 with plain glass, windows replaced in 2011 with stained glass.

Seems the fashions in cliff lifts like bustles, change with the seasons!

We visited on a glorious sunny day in June when all of Saltburn had gravitated to the sea. Sadly everyone had had to either walk the 173 steps or haggle for a place in the tiny car park as the stair lift wasn't operational.

Following a fire on 15th January 2024, damage was caused to the Grade II listed building and repairs are imminent although no time for reopening has been disclosed yet. It is estimated that a full rewire of the system is required along with careful restoration of the structure.

The carriages hung, halted in time, suspended in their seaward stance, ready for mending and a new season of Saltburn revellers. History hanging in the balance.

Ordinarily, the cliff lift is open on weekends in peak seasons from mid-March to approximately the end of October.

Thanks a bunch to Julian Harrop who was happy to share the creative photo of the carriage going down the cliff close to the tracks! Fantastic shot.