Whitby Abbey

The forlorn ruin of Whitby Abbey has long been watchful over the North Sea approach to the River Esk. The headland’s history began when a Saxon princess, Hild, founded the first abbey in 657, teaching the observance of virtue. Two hundred years after her passing, her abbey was laid waste by the Vikings. Re-founded in the late 11th century, the abbey endured until the Dissolution. Centuries later, Bram Stoker lodged at the Royal Hotel on the western heights of Whitby where he penned his famed Gothic novel, Dracula. The eerie graveyard of St. Mary’s skirts the abbey, and it is no feat to imagine how this sight stirred his creativity. His monster, cursed with everlasting life, stands in haunting contrast to the melancholy of the crumbling stones, which foretell the fate of all human passion and endeavour. These stones have been marked by countless raindrops and swept by windstorms down through the centuries. Beneath these stones lie the vision and toil of many, yet none of the words are ours.