Whitby
Whitby is an absolutely delightful seaside town on the North Yorkshire coast, most famous for its abbey ruins, connections to Dracula*, and Captain James Cook. At least, those are the things I know it best for. My first introduction to the town of Whitby was in the pages of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a book which surprised me when I first read it in 2012. The only other vampire story I’d read prior to it was Twilight, so I was definitely unfamiliar with the genre of vampire literature. Reading Dracula felt like reading other English literature of the time period, slightly fantastical of course, but it’s very well-written. The abbey, the harbor, the churchyard, and the 199 Steps all feature in the novel, and the town’s association with the story has resulted in a major goth festival each year (which coincidentally, just happened over the past weekend).
Besides its connection to Dracula, Whitby is just an all-around charming place to explore. The cobbled streets are lined with cute shops of all kinds, including an adorable independent bookshop and secondhand bookstores, too. There are lots of options for tea and coffee or fish n’ chips. I loved discovering Sherlock’s Coffee Shop—their breakfast was scrumptious.
And then of course, there’s the wonderful North Sea itself. High and low tides bring a dramatic difference to the amount of beach available to walk on; the high tides leave behind beautiful sea glass, remnants of a long-lost bottle factory that threw out misshapen bottles into the ocean (or so I was told). If you’re especially lucky, you can also find bits of blue and white pottery left behind from Dutch trading ships sailing into Whitby Harbor. There are well-worn pieces of driftwood and great-sized rocks covered in bright green moss. As Anne Shirley would say, there’s plenty of “scope for the imagination” in this seaside town.
In addition to invigorating coastal walks, it can also be a beautiful (albeit hilly) place to cycle, and its close proximity to other coastal towns like Staithes and Robin Hood’s Bay make it a good starting off point for lots of different adventures. For a few more pictures around Whitby, check out the North Yorkshire Picture Gallery.
*I use affiliate links for Bookshop.org.