Whitby, Abbey, Saltwick Bay and Cliffs

A cliff path takes you along the route of the Cleveland Way (a National Trail skirting the North York Moors National Park and extending south along the Yorkshire coast to Filey). The walk goes along the cliff edge as far as Gnipe Howe before turning inland through farmland and along country lanes, eventually descending to Whitby's harbourside and a maze of narrow streets, yards, and alleys through the old town.

A cacophony of seabird calls resounds from cliff-edge nesting sites and around the harbour estuary, where majestic fulmars skirt the cliff face gliding gracefully on rigid wings over coastal air currents, alongside cormorants and shags. One of the few truly maritime plants seen along the coast is scurvygrass with flat-topped clusters of white flowers and fleshy rounded-kidney basal leaves. Historically eaten by seafarers lacking fresh vegetables to prevent scurvy (hence the name, though it actually belongs to the cabbage family), it provides masses of white flowers throughout summer.

Surrounded by moorland on three sides, Whitby always had to seek its trade and communication via the sea; isolation from its hinterland began to crumble with the first stagecoach services to York in 1789, gathering pace after 1836 when George Stephenson engineered a rail line over the moors to Pickering.

Whitby's religious and maritime history pervades the town: gaunt ruins of the Abbey dominate the headland scene, steadfast against unforgiving sea storms. Saint Hilda brought Christianity here in the 7th century, hosting the famous Synod of Whitby in AD 664. Although the original abbey was destroyed by Danish invaders in the 9th century, the ruins seen today were built on the original site in 1078. Caedmon Cross commemorates the 7th-century farmworker turned monk who had a vision calling him to sing a song of creation.

On the opposite headland is the memorial to Whitby's greatest seaman, Captain James Cook, near the whalebone arch. In the 1890s, Bram Stoker took regular holidays in Whitby, hearing tales of a schooner grounded on the town beach during a storm. From West Cliff lodgings he had a prime view of the wreck site, cobbled streets of the East side, and imposing ruins of Whitby Abbey and St Mary's Church at the top of the 199 steps — sparking his novel about Count Dracula.

The character of Whitby creates myths and legends — from Dracula to Humpty Dumpty and mermaids — and its fame is celebrated twice a year by the Whitby Goth Weekend in spring and around Halloween.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.