The small seaside town of Whitby in North Yorkshire doesn’t get much foot-traffic and is best known as the backdrop of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. However, Whitby has a hidden gem: its Museum, Library and Archive.

Top Places in Whitby

Whitby, England

Ruins of Whitby Abbey

The gloomy ruins that inspired Bram Stoker to bring Dracula to life.

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Whitby, England

Bram Stoker Memorial Seat

The view that inspired the scenes of Dracula's first landing in England.

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Whitby, England

Whitby Whale Bone Arch

These 20-foot jaw bones honor a time when the leviathan bones were a sign that whalers survived the hunt.

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Reverend George Young and a group of leading Whitby residents founded the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society in 1823 with the principal mission to open a museum showcasing the fossils of the area. Since then the Society built a larger building in 1931, donated it to the town council, and acquired objects of a much broader and stranger nature then just fossils

The expanded museum contains a wide range of specimens including rather creepy antique toys and dolls, gold coins, some amazing taxidermy such as a stuffed stoat, to shipping and fishing lore. However the highlights of the collection are the “miscellaneous” bizarre items, such as a Glory Hand, supposedly cut off of a hung criminal and embalmed, the cabinets of curiosity known as the Ripley Cabinets, a collection of ships in bottles, and a model of the Tempest Prognosticator, a weather forecasting device employing leeches.

The Society also boasts a large library and archive containing numerous antiquarian volumes as well as many on local topography and history, for research as well as hosts monthly lectures for the community on a range of studious topics.

Above the town the picturesquely gloomy ruins of Whitby Abbey were Mina Harker’s favorite spot in town in the Dracula story.