Six boreholes are being inserted at the site near Cayton Bay in the hope of finding out the cause of the devastating landslip which has plagued the private residential area since April.

The investigation, which started last month under the watchful eye of Scarborough Council, will last another three weeks followed by a further four weeks for laboratory testing of the samples, and collection of monitoring data from the equipment installed on site. Analysis of this data will take a further seven weeks with completion of the study expected in March 2009.

Stewart Rowe, principal coastal officer for Scarborough Council, said: "So far everything is going well and in fact we are ahead of schedule. Four holes are being drilled at the moment and the other two will start soon.

"It is great to get going with it and there was a lot of preparation needed before we could start. There are a lot of regulations you have to comply with.

"Once the landslip was activated we were on site straight away and have been working towards this ever since."

Three bungalows were demolished at Knipe Point earlier this year after the landslip brought them dangerously close to the cliff edge.

Scarborough Council secured £90,000 of funding for the project from the Environment Agency in June.

To carry out the work, the council needed to get permission from the landowners – National Trust, North Yorkshire County Council and Knipe Point Freeholders Limited.

Mr Rowe added: "We are not the landowners here, but we accept that we have a duty of well being to the residents. We knew what needed doing and it was not right for residents to undertake it on there own."

The drilling is being carried out by Leeds-based soil engineering division, Norwest Holst.

Cllr Andrew Backhouse, technical services portfolio holder, said: "The aim of this project is to find out what is going on under this site. We cannot guarantee we will find the cause, but hopefully it will give us something.

"The officers have done a great job in getting this started and I would say that the residents are happy with our work. This gives them some comfort that something is actually happening."