For book lovers, few places capture the imagination quite like Whitby, a seaside town whose cobbled streets and haunting ruined abbey once inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Over the centuries, countless other authors have left their mark on Whitby, inspired by its gothic charm. Today, Whitby’s literary connections continue to attract book lovers seeking a glimpse of the real scenery behind the stories.
Dracula
Whitby’s most renowned appearance in literature is almost certainly in Bram Stoker’s gothic novel, Dracula. It’s an unforgettable scene: an empty ship lurches onto the rocks in Whitby Harbour amid a violent storm. Closer inspections reveal that the crew are dead and the decaying captain is tied to the mast. All of a sudden, a huge, black dog rushes out of the ship and races up the steps to the ruins of Whitby Abbey, bringing terror to the population of Whitby.
When you visit Whitby, it’s hardly surprising that one of the most famous scenes in gothic literature takes place there. It’s an eerie place with its crumbling Abbey up on the hilltop, its dark cobbled alleyways, its ghost stories and its graveyards in the shadow of church towers. Stoker expertly applied all of these elements to his advantage in telling his foundational gothic tale.
Whitby’s literary connections
Bram Stoker is not the only famous author with connections to Whitby. Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll all stayed in Whitby at one point or another. Collins worked on No Name whilst he was there.
Other authors have used Whitby as the setting for their novels, including Elizabeth Gaskell’s Sylvia’s Lovers and A S Byatt’s Possession. Whitby is featured in a more modern setting in the series of young adult novels, The Whitby Witches.
Whitby Literary Festival
Whitby’s inaugural literary festival took place over four days in November 2025. A packed programme of talks and writing workshops featured writers and authors not only gothic literature but many other genres, some of them inspired by Whitby.
The festival now takes place annually in November.
Bookshops in Whitby
Inevitably a place with so many literary connections has a selection of bookshops. Why not check out:
- The Whitby Bookshop
- Great Reads Whitby
- The Little Fox Bookshop
- Whitby’s various charity shops, including the Oxfam on New Quay Road
Other literary locations in the UK
Bookworms travelling to the UK might want to add the following literary locations to their itineraries:
- Norwich, a UNESCO Creative City of Literature
- Cornwall, the setting for many of Daphne du Maurier’s novels including the real-life Jamaica Inn
- Haworth, home of the Brontë sisters
- Stratford-upon-Avon, best-known for being home to William Shakespeare
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