Bram Stoker's Whitby

Our three-day weekend by the sea continued with a two-night stay in the town of Whitby. Bram Stoker's Dracula includes several key scenes based in Whitby, and because of that and the erie church and abbey ruins perched high up on a cliff,  it is a gothic teenager's dream! In fact, when researching bed & breakfasts, one weekend in October was all booked up thanks to the town's annual Gothic Festival. So the Whiby residents (and tourism board) definitely milk their Dracula connection!

St. Mary's Church and the Abbey ruins at the top of Whitby Cliff

To get to the abbey and church on the cliff, you have to walk up a stairway with 199 stone steps. We stopped a few times on our way up to take in and photograph the views of Whitby (and for me to catch my breath).

Whitby Pier as seen from stairstep #101 (or maybe it was step #103? or #98?)

We toured the inside of Saint Mary's Church before heading over to the Abbey.  I didn't know anything about the church before we arrived, but have since researched a bit about it. It was built in the 12th and 13th centuries and inside contains only pew-boxes that families had to purchase to use for services. I tried to find a picture of the pew boxes online as no photos were permitted inside the church, but alas, no good photos were found. Trust me, the pew boxes were interesting :-)

St. Mary's church and graveyard

The church and its graveyard are partially responsible for the town's popularity in all things goth. Take this quote from Bram Stoker's Dracula:

"For a moment or two I could see nothing, as the shadow of a cloud obscured St. Mary's Church. Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the Abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and churchyard became gradually visible... It seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell."

St. Mary's graveyard looking toward Whitby

While there, we read about a much more recent and super-creepy occurrence that took place in this graveyard. In November 2012, a rainstorm eroded part of the cliff where St. Mary's and the Abbey is perched. Over the course of several days, as the cliff eroded, human remains tumbled out of their coffins in the graveyard and landed on the street below. Ewwwww!! The remains were collected, and re-interned farther away from the cliffside.

St. Mary's graveyard looking towards the Abbey

And now on to the Abbey! Yet another abbey destroyed by Henry VIII in the mid 16th century. The abbey ruins that we see today was originally built in 13th century, so it is actually younger that St. Mary's church next door! I found it interesting to learn that the British / Anglo-Saxon conversion from Paganism to Christianity can be traced back to the Synod of Whitby . I won't bore you with the details (as there are a lot of details), but if you want to learn more, click on the words underlined above. If you click that link, congratulations! You're a history geek like me :-) 

Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey and the Whitby coast

After our tour atop the cliff, we walked back down to the town (this time on the steep horse/donkey cobblestone ramp next to the stairway) and ambled along the shops and restaurants. I tried to get Bill to purchase some kippers from the smoked kipper shack run by the same family for more than 140 years, but he wasn't interested. Everyone told us if you go to Whitby, you have to eat the traditional fish & chips. It's like, THE place to eat fish & chips in all of England. We asked our BandB hostess where she would recommend we go and she told us to skip The Magpie (which is on tourist row and is overpriced and way too crowded) and head for the Royal Fishery in town. We noticed a line out the door at The Magpie, so we made our way to the Royal Fishery per her suggestion. We were seated at a table right away amongst all of the locals (we seemed to be the only tourists) and had a delicious and super-filling dinner of sustainably caught fish & chips. YUM!! 

Then, because we're such a wild and crazy couple, we walked back to our Bed and Breakfast and watched the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who. It doesn't get more British (or nerdy) than that, ladies and gentlemen!!

Whitby Abby - NOT MY PHOTO, it's from the English Heritage website

As a side-note, England experienced an awful storm yesterday. The storm hit the English northeast particularly hard. The storm, coupled with an exceedingly high tide flooded most of Whitby's coastline as well as its seaside homes and shops. I hope everyone in Whitby recovers quickly and am very thankful we hadn't planned our mini-vacation this weekend.