Top Middlesbrough Ancient Ruins

The ruins of Whitby Abbey crown a clifftop over the historic fishing port of Whitby. The headland has hosted St Hild’s Anglo-Saxon monastery, the great medieval abbey and a Stuart mansion, and it’s long been the focus of myths and legends. You can find out more about the headland’s people and stories in the big Whitby Abbey museum, packed with objects and stories. Listening posts, peep-holes and animations tell the headland’s many tales: how St Hild turned snakes to stone, how Anglo-Saxon Caedmon became a poet, how the lost abbey bells are still heard beneath the waves, and how a real shipwreck helped inspire Dracula, which in turn has made Whitby the ‘Goth capital’ of England.