Stone Path Leading to
Ruins of Whitby Abbey Whitby
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Beanland, Glenn
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Whitby

Whitby is a Yorkshire resort town on the North East coast of England in the UK. It's popular with tourists and also as a vacation destination for holiday makers. The town has a lot of history and features the famous ruins of Whitby Abbey. It was also a traditional source of jet (back amber) which as been used to make jewelry for centuries.

Dracula

For many people Whitby will be forever associated with the vampire Dracula. The sight of Whitby Abbey and St Mary's Church inspired Bram Stoker to set much of his famous gothic novel in the town. In the novel it is at Whitby that Dracula first arrives in England by ship, watched from the churchyard by Lucy Westenra.

The ship in the novel - the Demeter - was named after a real Russian ship the Dmitri said to have been beached at the port. According to folklore, the Dmitri was a carrying a cargo of coffins, all occupied. They and their contents then washed up on the shore to be discovered the next morning.

Many other sights and sounds of Whitby are claimed to have given Stoker inspiration, including the bats in the stable behind the inn where he stayed.

Today the Dracula connection is of great importance to the town's tourist industry. There are Dracula exhibitions, tours and - of course - plenty of vampire stuff to buy.

The Whitby Wyrm

For the draconologist the town will be associated with the Whitby Wyrm, a dragonlike serpent that has inspired much art such as posters, T-shirts etc. The story goes that during the building of the Whitby Abbey the great fire-breathing Wyrm was disturbed from his slumber in the mountain. He attempted to destroy the town but was banished into the sea. Every seven years he returns at full moon to attempt to drag the abbey into the sea by clawing away at the cliff on which it stands.

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