A Whale of A Time in Whitby
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BEWARE, reads a warning after each entry on the menu at The Magpie Café, “these are Yorkshire portions.” One look at the “medium-sized” piece of Scarborough Woof on my plate, dressed in golden crispy batter and accompanied by home-made chips, shows the locals are clearly not prone to hyperbole. It’s almost as big as one of the whales once caught off the shores here.
The Magpie is housed in what were, until the Thirties, fishing offices in the North Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby. The decor is old school, scrubbed black-andwhite floor tiles and framed newspaper clippings on the walls, and the food is delicious. Not for nothing is it known as one of the best fish and chip restaurants in the county.
My wife, Laura, and I arrived here earlier this morning, our summer Greek holiday plans scuppered by the happy oncoming arrival of twins and a no-fly order from the doctors. Consequently we are holidaying in England for the first time in years.
We’re staying at The Woodlands, a restaurant with rooms nestled in a valley in the hamlet of Sandsend, three miles down the pretty coastal road at the end of Whitby Sands beach. If you’re thinking typical British B&B, think again. The Woodlands, run by mother and daughter Lizzie and Natasha Clarke, looks like it has leapt from the pages of a style magazine.
Our room, over two floors, may be small but it’s beautifully furnished with an eclectic mix of restored antiques, Laura Ashley soft fabrics and the odd modern touch such as a spiral staircase leading to the downstairs bathroom. Even better, it’s a proper retreat, far enough from the coast road for the cars to be a distant hum. The only other sounds are birdsong from the trees and the gurgling of a nearby brook.
Back in Whitby, the only way to digest our huge meal is with a brisk, exploratory walk. The quaint town is divided into east and west by the River Esk estuary, tiny old fishing cottages tumbling down its steep banks. High above on the eastern cliffs, the fortress-like exterior of St Mary’s Church and the ruins of medieval Whitby Abbey dominate this moors-meet-thesea landscape, which is so rugged that it inspired Bram Stoker to set Dracula’s arrival inEngland here.
The west side of town is a more commercial affair, home to the small new town, a smattering of shops, restaurants and bars (including The Magpie). Here, there’s a rather hokey but fun Dracula Experience which, if it cost any more than £3 to get in, would surely have visitors rallying for a refund at the entrance with pitchforks and torches.
Over the bridge, on the east bank, there are narrow cobbled streets, the old market square and higgledy-piggledy fishermen’s cottages. Many of these are now shops taken over by artisans. Justin makes fudge and toffee, while Annie’s Fayre in the Shambles Market has delicious home-made preserves, including Vampire Relish and Gothic Chutney.
Wesley Hall, meanwhile, is an old theatre converted into a shrine to knitting and knitwear where you can pick up traditional fishermen’s ganseys.
We come back to the east side in the evening to explore the tiny alleys by night, courtesy of the town’s Original Ghost Walk. Our host Carole, a large woman wearing a long leather coat, regales us with tall tales full of the town’s early history as a haven for ne’er-do-wells. Thanks to Whitby often being cut off in winter by bad weather on the moors, newcomers, presumably in search of a haven, were not greeted with: “Where do you come from?” but rather “What did you do?”
The next morning we take the 199 steps – yes, we did count them – to the abbey and St Mary’s. The audio tour of the ruins gives an insight into how the Benedictine abbey, which dates to 657, fell into disrepair when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1540. From here, the views of the town, North Sea and Yorkshire’s Jurassic Coast are stupendous.
Over on the West Cliff, we can just make out the Whale Bone Arch, a tribute to the old whalers, and the statue of James Cook who set off from here on HMS Endeavour in 1768 to chart Australia and New Zealand.
There’s more on the town’s maritime history at Whitby Museum in the beautifully manicured Pannett Park. It’s home to a hotchpotch of fossils, stuffed seabirds and an exhibit dedicated to the town’s other famous sailor, William Scoresby, who saved the lives of countless seamen with the invention of the crow’s nest. There is even a mummified Hand Of Glory, the severed hand of a thief used to cast sleeping spells on houses before they were burgled.
We retire for a final meal at Woodlands – Eat restaurant, a short walk from the hotel itself. A tiny, minimalist eatery, it’s where Natasha’s fiancé and head chef Alex Perkins has been cooking up a local storm and it’s not hard to see why. We sample carrot, roast garlic and parsley soup and potted North Sea shrimp, followed by twice-baked Ribblesdale salad and local lobster with hollandaise sauce and home-cooked chips. Again, the portions are Yorkshire-sized but the flavours are deserving of a much, much wider recognition.
THE KNOWLEDGE:
Woodlands – Sleep (01947 893272/www.thewoodlands-sandsend.com) offers doubles from £110 per night (two sharing), B&B. Woodlands – Eat (01947 893438) offers three-course meals from £30. Bram Stoker’s Dracula Experience (01947 601923/www.draculaexperience.co.uk), £3 per adult, £2.50 per child (up to 13). Whitby Museum (01947 602908/www.whitbymuseum.org.uk), £4 per adult, £1 per child (five-16). Welcome to Yorkshire: 0113 322 3500/www.yorkshire.com
