Whitby

To the south lies the coastal villages and resorts of Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington. All these are well within a short drive. The nearest city inland is York.

From the old town , 199 steps lead up to the parish church of St. Mary, whose churchyard on Whitby’s East Cliff gave Bram Stoker the inspiration to write his world famous book, Dracula.

The Whitby skyline is dominated by the ruins of St. Hilda’s Abbey, high on the East Cliff. Spreading below in the old town, a maze of alleyways and narrow streets run down to the busy quayside.

The town has produced its own famous sons. Among these are Captain James Cook, the 18th century explorer and voyager who had set sail in the Bark Endeavour from the harbour, the outstanding father and son whaling masters of the Scoresby family and pioneer photographer, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe.

Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Borough of Scarborough and English county of North Yorkshire.

Whitby is situated on the east coast of Yorkshire facing the North Sea in a deep valley at the mouth of the River Esk.

It has been a bridging point since at least medieval times and several bridges have spanned the river. The current bridge, built in 1908, is a swing bridge with a 75-foot span that separates the upper and lower harbours.

The town is surrounded on its landward sides by the moorland of the North York Moors National Park and the North Sea abuts it on the seaward side. The coastal areas are designated part of the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Heritage Coast.

This stretch of coast, known as the ‘Dinosaur Coast’, the ‘Fossil Coast’ or the ‘Jurassic Coast’, is around 35 miles long, stretching from Staithes in the north, to Flamborough Head in the East Riding of Yorkshire.