Just an illusion? Visitors enjoy photographing picture-perfect Staithes but not everyone realises some of it isn't real! Slow down, look a little closer as you stroll through the tiny back streets and passageways in the North York Moors coastal village of Staithes and you'll see some surprising sights.
There’s a reclining mermaid, a red boat and a fossilised animal skeleton in places where you least expect – on the sides of buildings, above doorways or on the corners of cottages.
They are all optical illusions, courtesy of trompe l’oeil (trick of the eye) artist and Staithes resident Paul Czainski, whose work has graced the likes of Chatsworth and Hampton Court Palace. For the Staithes Illusion Trail, he drew inspiration from the village’s heritage to paint a series of 3-D murals on hidden corners of walls and buildings.
Wander down a snicket called Gun Gutter and see the mermaid, a nod to the local legend about mermaids once being captured by fishermen and then placing a curse over the village, leading to coastal erosion.
Elsewhere there’s a plaque depicting the head of a woman called Laura Knight, one of the leading members of the Staithes Group, a 19th century colony of artists who were inspired to paint en plein air to capture the dramatic, ever-changing light of the village’s coastal position.
On another corner, there’s a gull perched on a section of coping. Above a doorway there’s a red boat and a shell seemingly placed on a shelf in an alcove, reflecting how many of the cottage owners decorate their shelves.
No trail would be complete without portraying the village’s fishing heritage and as you edge closer to the harbour, there’s a mural dedicated to a line of floats and ropes that you’d see on boats.