Stoker was in the North Yorkshire town of Whitby. The seaside resort sits about 12 miles south of Middlesbrough and is surrounded by an area of outstanding natural beauty. The North Yorkshire Moors National Park is an area where rivers meander gently through rolling valleys, sheep graze on green grass until it looks like it has been mowed professionally, grouse and pheasants are seen in every delta and rabbits and hares leap across rickety wooden footbridges so loved by country ramblers.
These beautiful sights can be found on the Northern line Railway, which is a train driven by steam during the summer months. Then as the train passes through the Esk Valley, passengers chug slowly into the town of Whitby. In the town you will see the famous Whitby Abbey – founded in 657 AD by the Saxon King of Northumbria, Oswy. A Roman signal station had previously existed on the site.
The abbey was trashed by the Vikings in the 9th century and again by Henry VIII and his church reformist mob in 1540. But three sides still remain and the eerie feel of this ancient construction can still be felt. The abbey is particularly haunting when the sea mists shroud the ancient monument like the set of a film.
There are 199 steps leading up to the church, which completes the Gothic horror theme with a number of 200-year-old gravestones, and the abbey sits majestically on the hillside’s highest point. If you walk down the steep hills towards the harbour and back up again to the West Cliff, you will see two huge whale bones formed in an arch.
The whale bone arch is testimony to the town’s historic past; the huge jaw bones of a whale were caught by fishing trawlers here in the 19th century. They can be found right next to the impressive statue of Captain Cook; his head white from the gifts left by the thousands of seagulls that grace these scenic cliffs.
