Visiting Whitby Abbey on the Cleveland Way

by Cass Jenks

Whitby Abbey, a fairly complete ruin, stands on the headland over Whitby, with a pond in front and the sea behind. The site helped inspire Bram Stoker's Dracula.

One of our favourite spots on the Cleveland Way has to be Whitby Abbey, a staggeringly beautiful ruin that’s easily accessible from the trail. The abbey is so old that it was abandoned in 1539, following suppression by King Henry VIII; the vast building was probably built in the 1220s, but the site had been a religious centre way back in 657.

It’s obviously a stunning place to visit, ridiculously well-preserved given the length of its history, but Bram Stoker added a compelling, if sinister, edge to the abbey when he included it in his famous gothic novel: Dracula.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

An illustration of Dracula by Bram Stoker. The eponymous vampire climbs out his castle window and directly down the stone wall below.

This novel defined the modern vampire. Dracula charts the advance of the undead count from Transylvania across to England and is famous both for its blood-drinking villain and its atmospheric Gothic setting.

Stowed away atop coffins of Transylvanian soil, Dracula crosses to England on an unwitting Russian ship. He feasts on the crew along the way, until at last the ship runs aground at Whitby.

Here, the rescue party find the stranded vessel empty — save for the captain’s body, roped to the helm with an ominous diary in hand.

Dracula’s Whitby

The novel pays a great deal of attention to the bay, streets and graveyards of Whitby. It lends them an eerie, dangerous atmosphere as the residents begin to fall victim to the vampiric threat.

The town visited by our Cleveland Way walking holiday is a far warmer, friendlier place. That might change, of course, if you deliberately step out at night, Bram Stoker’s work in hand, to drum up a tingle of that Gothic fright.

Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey as seen from afar, surrounded by flat grassland with the sea behind it.

The vast abbey that stands over Whitby is a more uniformly imposing structure. Its carved stone peaks and arches form a distinctive silhouette above the houses, standing high up on the headland.

Apparently it’s not unusual to spy tourists prowling the graves nearby in search of Dracula’s headstone. Fictional though the count may be, his power to bewitch the human mind seems just as great as his author imagined.

Walk to the site

If you, too, adore Stoker’s vampire novel, or just quite like the look of the towering abbey ruin, you can visit Whitby Abbey while walking the Cleveland Way.

Both our full-route Cleveland Way holidays and our north section alternative head right by the abbey — you’ll barely need to make a detour. The site is managed by English Heritage and you can expect to pay a fee to enter, but the cost is reduced if you book tickets to Whitby Abbey online in advance.

Cass J, writer at Contours Holidays, rides a mountain bike down a hill.

Cass Jenks

Marketing and Strategy Consultant

Writer, editor and Google-wrangler at Contours Holidays, Cass spends each weekend on the trails, walking the dog or plummeting downhill along Wales’ best mountain biking tracks.