A broad sandy beach below the West Cliff of Whitby, the old whaling and fishing town of abbey ruins, kippers and Dracula
Whitby’s main beach is the long stretch of sand below the West Cliff, backed by a row of beach huts and reached by a cliff lift or the paths down. The bathing water is rated Excellent, and on a warm day the sands fill up with families, buckets and windbreaks in the usual way. It is proper North Sea, though, so the water stays bracing whatever the weather is doing.
The beach is only half the point of a day in Whitby. The town wraps around a working harbour where the River Esk meets the sea, split into two halves by the water. On the East Cliff stand the ruins of Whitby Abbey, reached by the well-worn 199 steps up from the old town past St Mary’s Church. Bram Stoker used those clifftop ruins as a setting in Dracula, and you will find that connection played up all over the town. Whitby was also a whaling port and the place where James Cook learned his trade as a sailor, and it is still known for its kippers, its jet jewellery and its fish and chips.
The Cleveland Way passes through on its way round the coast, so you can walk in along the cliffs. There are pay-and-display car parks around the town, but Whitby gets very busy in summer and on festival weekends, so arriving early or coming by train makes the day a lot easier.
