Yorkshire Horror: Whitby and the deep connection to Dracula
Whitby in North Yorkshire, England, has long been one of the favourite destinations for those who love the cooler climes of the coast and the delicacy of fish and chips. A small seaside town, its history is much more extensive than you might think when high up on the road coming into its orbit. Whether it be the connection to Cædmon, the earliest recognised English poet or the storied Captain Cook, for a population of 13,213, Whitby is a remarkable place and is inextricably tied to British history and culture. Although the area is primarily known for its connection to the fishing industry, something else makes it extraordinary: its influence on Bram Stoker’s gothic masterpiece, Dracula.
As was inferred by Whitby’s links to Cædmon, the location has had a significant influence on literature, with Charles Dickins even a fan of the seaside resort. In 1861, he wrote to Wilkie Collins, who was in Whitby at the time: “In my time that curious railroad by the Whitby Moor was so much the more curious, that you were balanced against a counter-weight of water, and that you did it like Blondin. But in these remote days, the one inn of Whitby was up a back-yard, and oyster-shell grottoes were the only view from the best private room.”
The town’s curious essence clearly impacted Bram Stoker, and in his 1897 masterwork, he used the town as a setting. The story goes that a good friend advised him to visit Whitby in 1890 after he became exasperated by his work. He was immediately mesmerised by the place, and the family stayed at 6 Royal Crescent until 1896, and it was here that he would write parts of Dracula.
For the novel, Stoker incorporated the most intriguing bits of local history, including the beaching of the Russian vessel Dmitri that occurred only five years earlier. Notably, it is also suggested that Whitby library was where he came across the name ‘Dracula’, with him later writing of the name: “Dracula means devil. Wallachians were accustomed to give it as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous by courage, cruel actions or cunning”.
In the novel, Dracula leaves Europe on a ship set for England with boxes of earth from his Transylvanian castle. During this segment, the captain’s log narrates the crew’s disappearance until he is the only one left, forced to maintain the course from the helm. Then, in one of the story’s most memorable and chilling parts, a large dog leaps ashore when the ship finally arrives in Whitby. It is also here that Mina and Lucy holiday in Whitby, and before too long, the latter starts to sleepwalk as the influence of the Count takes its toll. Elsewhere in the book, the steep 199 steps leading up to Abbey are mentioned when Dracula runs up them in the form of the dog after the ship is beached on Tate Hill Sands.
It’s not hard to understand where Stoker took much of his inspiration in Whitby. The serene yet haunting ruins of Whitby Abbey overlook the town, with an almost spiritual hold over it, similar to the way the Count does his quarry. Day and night, the sight of the Abbey makes a profound mark on the beholder, with its ruin standing there for hundreds of years, a reminder of the area’s often dark past.
This passage from the book reflects the influence Whitby had on Dracula: “For a moment or two, I could see nothing, as the shadow of a cloud obscured St. Mary’s Church and all around it. Then as the cloud passed, I could see the ruins of the Abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and churchyard became gradually visible… It seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone and bent over it. I could not tell what it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell.”
Due to the inextricable link between Whitby and Dracula, droves descend on the town every year. The most famous manifestation of this connection comes in the form of the bi-annual Whitby Goth Weekend, which has seen adherents of the goth subculture converge from far and wide on the sleepy seaside town every year since 1993.
