Whitby Abbey

The dramatic ruins overlooking the North Sea inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula—and harbor far older horrors.

Dracula’s Inspiration

Stoker stayed in Whitby in 1890:

• The Count’s ship runs aground below the abbey
• Lucy is attacked in St. Mary’s churchyard
• The 199 steps feature prominently
• The Gothic atmosphere pervades the novel

Constance De Beverly

A medieval nun who broke her vows:

• She fell in love and became pregnant
• She was tried and found guilty
• She was bricked up alive within the abbey walls
• Her ghost walks the 199 steps
• Wearing her habit, she appears on the clifftop
• Her screams echo on stormy nights

The Barguest Coach

A phantom death coach:

• Pulled by headless horses
• Driven by a headless coachman
• Collects souls of dead sailors
• Seen careening through the streets at night
• Those who see it face death within a year

St. Hilda

The founding abbess (died 680 AD):

• Seen in the abbey ruins
• Wearing a halo of light
• Appears during thunderstorms
• Ammonite fossils called “snakestones” attributed to her miracles

Other Phenomena

The Phantom Choir

• Chanting heard from the ruins at midnight
• Gregorian plainsong
• No source ever found

Spectral Monks

• Walking in procession
• Disappearing into walls
• Glimpsed at dawn and dusk

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Whitby Abbey is managed by English Heritage and hosts regular ghost tours.