Two whole weeks - how wonderful! And what a lot you will be able to see and enjoy.
I love
Whitby and it is definitely worth visiting. Its streets are very narrow and that can make it seem busy. It is dominated by the ruined
abbey high above the town and reached up the ‘199 steps’. Each time I do them I get a different number. Last visit I made it 206!
Don’t miss the delightful
St Mary’s Church next to the Abbey. It actually predates the Abbey and parts of it are Norman.
The interior is a marvellous example of a Georgian Church and jam packed full of box pews.
Whitby is famous for its jet which was popular for mourning jewellery in Victorian times. There are lots of jewellers selling it. There are also fish and chips... Guide books recommend The Magpie but I always go to the tiny
Monk’s Haven Cafe on Church street. Portions are huge and I do mean huge, but they do small portions which are the size of large portions elsewhere.
If you like Kippers then there is
Fortunes on Henrietta Street below the Abbey. Fortunes has been smoking kippers for over 150 years and they are some of the best I have ever tasted. It has a tiny smokehouse behind the very old fashioned shop and you can peep in and see the kippers being smoked traditionally. There are no artificial dyes here and the smell is wonderful. Follow the crowds and your nose to reach it!
I also second a visit to Robin Hood’s Bay just down the coast from whitby and can easily be combined with it. The village is tucked away at the base of the cliffs. Only locals are allowed to drive down into the village. Visitors have to leave their cars in the large car park and walk down. It is a network of tiny streets and even narrower alleyways. On your way here, look out for
Old St Stephen’s Church at the crossroads before the road begins to drop down. The church is no longer used and lovingly cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. Again it is an unspoilt Georgian Church but remarkable for its Maiden’s garlands. These were made by friends of a young woman who died before she was married and were carried in front of the coffin at her funeral. Hanging in the back of the church are garlands from around 1850.
A few miles further south is the tiny settlement of Ravenscar. In the early 1900s there were big plans to develop the tiny settlement which had been the centre of the alum industry into a tourist resort to rival Scarborough. The company went bankrupt leaving the remains of empty streets with no houses... there is a short
walk you can do round the town that never was. The beach is a good place to find fossils.
It is years since I last went to
Scarborough, so no pictures I'm afraid. It is the largest holiday resort on the Yorkshire coast and was an important spa. It has a ruined castle and two bays. The South Bay was the site of the medieval settlement and harbour. and is the main tourist area. It can be a bit ‘kiss me quick’ in places. The North Bay was the more ‘up market’ area
It is probably even longer since I visited Staithes which could possibly be described as a smaller version of whitby but without the Abbey. It was one of the largest fishing ports on the north east coast. James Cook who later became famous as Captain Cook worked in a grocers shop here before moving to Whibtby where he joined the Royal Navy. The rest is history...
Just north of Whitby is Sandsend with its glorious sandy beach. Behind the beach is Mulgrave Woods and there is a lovely
walk through the woodland
Between Sandsend and Staithes is Runswick Bay , with its small village nestling around a sandy beach and described as one of the Yorkshire coast’s prettiest destinations. If passing it is worth a quick look.