Whitby abbey

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So of course being in Whitby we had to visit the ruins of the abbey, famous in ‘Goth’ circles and among Dracula fans (@Tampa_girl7). It’s just one of many ruined abbeys, monasteries and priories scattered around Britain, forcibly abandoned when Henry VIII dissolved the institutions as part of his break with the Catholic Church in the late 1530s. Nevertheless it is a very prominent and well-known landmark, and just a little way down the slope there is also the parish church of St Mary with its atmospheric graveyard on the cliff top. One of the graves allegedly commemorates a man named Swales, and Bram Stoker noted this name (among others) and used it as the name of Dracula’s first victim in his book. Streams of tourists climb the famous 199 steps to the churchyard, and some continue to the abbey ruins beyond. The abbey itself was first founded in the 7th century, housing a thriving community of both monks and nuns, and played host to the Synod of Whitby in 664, which decided the date of Easter. In the 10th century it was repeatedly attacked by marauding Danes, after which it was abandoned and deserted for 200 years. Then in the 13th century it was again adopted as a religious site, a new and much bigger abbey was built and it was a famous seat of learning until it all ended in 1540. After that it was sold to a private family, who adopted the abbot’s lodging as their own manor house. Gradually the building fell into disrepair, with large parts collapsing at intervals during the 18th and 19th centuries, and it was shelled by the Germans in 1914. It passed to the care of English Heritage in 1920. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2024.