favorite places #7 Whitby, England

 Whitby, England

Pack up your bags, we're headed to Whitby!



things that I love about Whitby:

• windy little roads and secret passageways
• funky little storefronts
• the screeching gulls
• the best cheese crackers that I have ever had
• train tracks that dead end at the Whitby station
• a crumbling hilltop abbey and the 199 steps to get to it

The abbey
High on the hilltop overlooking the town of Whitby are the crumbling ruins of St. Hilda's Abbey. From down below are the 199 steps leading up to the abbey and to St. Mary's parish church and graveyard. It was here that Bram Stoker was inspired to write Dracula. On my first visit to Whitby in 2006 with my cousin Robin we walked up the 199 steps to reach the abbey. We wandered through St. Mary's graveyard and marveled at the gravestones worn down and pockmarked by centuries of sea air. On my second visit last year with my sister Patience we came around the abbey the long way, hiking a stretch of the Cleveland Way along the top of the cliffs. Any way that you approach it the abbey is an impressive sight to see. 

Walking  through the countryside and along the clifftops.
Walking is serious business in the UK. There are walks and paths and rambles and treks. Walkers are granted right of way across fields and farms and have gates and turnstiles and steps across walls specifically for the purpose of walking. Patience and I embarked on a short (5 mile) walk around Whitby on a mapped trail. Starting in town we soon were headed through fields, down country roads, through farms (where we met a border collie and many cows), along the coast and high on the top of the cliffs until we looped back around to the abbey and down the steps to town. Part of our walk took us along the Cleveland Way, one of the major British walks. It was invigerating and so much fun. I understood immediately why so many people in England love to ramble!

In town.
I love wandering the streets of Whitby. There are all kinds of twisty little alleys and tunnels through the hill above the river and fun little shops. Not to mention the bakery that sells the most delicious cheese crackers and a pretty yummy caramel sort of rice krispie treat.

The harbour and the river Esk.
The harbour and the river are pretty much the heart of Whitby. They divide the town in two with a bridge linking both sides. All sorts of activity takes place here on and along the water...boats coming and going, gulls flying overhead, swans gliding along the water, crab pots piled up along the pier, restaurants and shops fronting the water and arcades and merriment galore.

The coast.
The coastline of Whitby is pretty spectacular. At low tide the beach seems to stretch forever. At high tide the waves hit up against the cliffs. It's a hike getting down to the beach and back up again but worth every step of it. I've only ever seen the North Sea in fall and winter so I don't know what it's like in warmer weather but on my visits to Whitby it's been an intense force. And from the vantage point of being on the beach the cliffs are fascinating...over the years they've been built up with stones, blocks, wooden boards and such creating a tetris like effect of shapes and textures, sort of like the rings of a tree or inside a geode.

I ♥ Whitby.


#8 coming soon...Natural History Museums.