Whitby, Dracula, and Literary Tourism

Graham Busby (Independent scholar, UK)

Forgotten now, yet famous in his day, Arthur Mee (1947, p. 254) states, “What do they know of England who do not Whitby know?” The small Yorkshire town is famous for several events: the Synod of Whitby, in 664, is a key date in ecclesiastical history because the Roman date for Easter was chosen and, thence, England became attached to the Roman Catholic Church. In his substantial novel Credo, Melvyn Bragg uses this event as a key component; “Bega had known that there would be a synod and a debate at Whitby, but only as she travelled there did she begin to realise the size and importance of the event” (Bragg, 1996, p.509).

Several hundred years later, locally-born James Cook, Captain Cook that is, sailed from here – the discoverer of many lands is commemorated by a bronze statue and in other ways. Indeed, the appellation Captain Cook Country has been shown by Prentice (2004) to have quite a high level of recognition. However, the Synod of Whitby and Captain Cook connection pales into insignificance when compared with a particular fictional creation and link to the town. In his introduction to the Wordsworth Classics edition of Dracula, Rogers (2000, p. vi) claims that the character “[…] has probably been the most widely popularised anti-hero in the whole of Western culture. More than two hundred and fifty films and innumerable stories and comics owe their inspiration to his figure […]”. This novel has been translated into forty-four languages besides English (Rogers, 2000), a testament to its influence.

Whilst Transylvania comes readily to mind in the story, Dracula lands, in the form of a dog, from the schooner Demeter as it crashes onto the shore, at Whitby, during a storm, the immense dog “Making straight for the steep cliff, where the churchyard hangs over the laneway to the East Pier so steeply that some of the flat tombstones […] actually project over where the sustaining cliff has fallen away […]” (Stoker, 2000, p. 67). Many aspects of Whitby feature in the novel written by Bram Stoker whilst staying in The Royal Hotel and are viewed by ‘fans’ today (Reijnders, 2010).

This entry examines the influence of several authors on the small town of Whitby in Yorkshire, England, to show that while Dracula represents a dominant aspect, other literary works pose significant competition in the creation of an organic destination image.  Some authors produced ‘bestsellers’ in their day, and others became well-known through adaptation to the small or large screen. Nonetheless, it is for Dracula – and the accompanying Goth/Gothic dimension – for which the town is known by many today. As Baleiro (2023) points out, “Gothic tourism is a ‘lighter’ form of dark tourism that emerges at the intersection of dark tourism and literary tourism. Such an example would be the Whitby Festival in the English seaside town of Whitby, where visitors find several experiences associated with Bram Stoker’s Dracula”. The Gothic dimension is important but far from being the only one for literary visitors.

Although small, Whitby has attracted authors for many years and, as Taylor and Pouliot (2020, p. 382) suggest, “this fascination with places associated with authors and their works originated with the long nineteenth century’s surge of enthusiasm for visiting, consecrating, and preserving authors’ houses, graves, landscapes, and literary remains”. Whitby is an exemplar, and the range of genres associated with the town needs to be emphasised. To this end, Table 1 provides an analytic lens through which a range of works can be identified.

Table 1. Whitby and the forms of literary tourism   

Source: Butler (1986), Busby & Klug (2001), Busby & Laviolette (2006).

As can be seen from the table, several authors – of a number of genres – are associated with Whitby for the first form of literary tourism. One of the member societies of the Alliance of Literary Societies (ALS) is dedicated to the works of Leo Walmsley (1892-1966), and it continues to promote awareness of his works, in addition to organising group visits to relevant locations. Although yet to be empirically tested, it is argued that children’s ‘pester power’ (Connell, 2005) is likely to have stimulated visits to the town following readings of the well-regarded Whitby Witches trilogy, written by Robin Jarvis (born 1963).  

Using the table as an analytic lens, the second form, relating to places of significance in the fiction, is epitomised by the 7-9 June 2024 meeting of the Wilkie Collins Society (another ALS member) held in the town. One of the locations in The Moonstone is said to be Whitby, and the author stayed with Caroline Graves, the inspiration for The Woman in White, published in 1859. Elizabeth Gaskell’s Sylvia’s Lovers (1863) features Whitby as Monkshaven and provides good topographic detail; incidentally, the Gaskell Society is another ALS member.

The Whitby Civic Society blue plaque scheme, similar to that of English Heritage, commemorates individuals connected with the town, and a number are writers. One of these indicates that Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), author of Alice in Wonderland, made six visits between 1854 and 1871. Another, on the wall of the New Angel Hotel, commemorates the stay of Arthur Machen (Arthur Llewellyn Jones), author of horror and supernatural fiction, well-known in his day. Therefore, the appeal of areas because they were appealing to literary and other figures, the third form of literary tourism, is given an imprimatur by the Whitby Civic Society in the form of these blue plaques. The third form has continued to inspire authors through the decades. For example, Antonia Byatt won the 1990 Booker Prize with Possession, which incorporates Whitby – “a sloping town, crowding down in picturesque alleys… to the water… the harbour, the ruined abbey” (Byatt, 1990, p. 254). Furthermore, the town and abbey featured in the 2002 film, with Gwyneth Paltrow in a lead role.

Whitby is an attractive town to many, but importantly, it is surrounded by the North Yorkshire Moors National Park and receives frequent travel-writing accounts, the fourth form of literary tourism. The town museum comprises an archive of guidebooks and leaflets (Let’s guide you round Whitby! – Whitby Museum). One example from Horne and Son in 1932 states, “Here is England at its loveliest, full of colour, restful, unspoiled, with air like wine… Places, like people, acquire character with years, and Whitby has been acquiring hers for the past thirteen centuries. We who belong to her may travel the world, but we always return and say ‘There is no place like Whitby’”.

Film-induced literary tourism, the sixth form, results from increased interest in a place through reading the literature after viewing what has appeared on the large or small screen. A good example is illustrated for Whitby and the surrounding area by author Nicholas Rhea. Having risen through the ranks of the local police service, he wrote 37 novels in the Constable series, adapted for television as Heartbeat. With 18 series and over 350 episodes (1992-2010), viewing figures consistently exceeded 10 million. Critically, Whitby scenes were filmed in Whitby. Whilst academic research into the television series has focused on the fictional Aidensfield (in reality, Goathland), there can be no doubt that some visitors will have been drawn to the fiction from television and, hence, motivated to see the locations. More details for Constable/Heartbeat are available at Heartbeat – Nicholas Rhea — NICHOLAS RHEA.   

The small town of Whitby is clearly the centre of much more literary interest than just Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Awareness-raising continues as is shown by the owner of publisher Manderley Press, Rebeka Russell; she “grew up in Whitby, North Yorkshire — muse to many wonderful authors new and old (think Bram Stoker, Elizabeth Gaskell, Storm Jameson and Kate Atkinson)” and republished Jameson’s The Moon Is Making in 2026. Literary tourism has applied to Whitby for more than a century and looks set to continue.

How to cite this entry: Busby, G. (2026).  Whitby, Dracula and Literary Tourism. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Eds.), E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University of the Algarve. https://doi.org/10.34623/zdg2-hn59

References

Baleiro, R. (2023). Dark literary tourism. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Eds.). E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University for Foreigners of Perugia. https://doi.org/10.34623/zdg2-hn59

Bragg, M. (1996). Credo. Sceptre.  

Busby, G. & Klug, J. (2001). Movie-induced tourism: The challenge of measurement and other issues. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 7(4), 316–332.    https://doi.org/10.1177/135676670100700403

Busby, G. & Laviolette, P. (2006). Narratives in the Net: Fiction and Cornish Tourism. In Payton, P. (Ed.) Cornish Studies Fourteen, 142–163.

Butler, R. (1986). Literature as an influence in shaping the image of tourist destinations. In J. S. Marsh (Ed.), Canadian Studies of Parks, Recreation and Tourism in Foreign Lands (pp. 111–132). Trent University.  

Byatt, A.S. (1990). Possession. Chatto & Windus.

Connell, J. (2005). Toddlers, tourism and Tobermory: Destination marketing issues and television-induced tourism. Tourism Management, 26 (5), 763–776.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2004.04.010

Mee, A. (1947). The King’s England – Yorkshire: North Riding. Hodder & Stoughton.

Prentice, R. (2004). Tourist Familiarity and Imagery. Annals of Tourism Research, 31 (4), 923–945. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2004.02.008

Reijnders, S. (2011). Stalking the Count – Dracula, Fandom and Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 38 (1), 231-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.08.006

Rogers, D. (2000). Introduction. In B. Stoker, Dracula (pp. i–xix), Wordsworth Editions.

Stoker, B. (2000). Dracula. Wordsworth Editions.

Taylor, J.E. & Pouliot, A. (2020). Introduction: Placing the author in ecologies of literary tourism. Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 42 (4), 381–389.