About Whitby, North Yorkshire

You will find many things to do and see in Whitby and the surrounding area, from the steep winding steps of our Abbey on the east headland, to fossiling along the Jurassic 'Dinosaur Coast'. You can lose yourself in the town's beauty and history.

The area is ideal for a painting holiday, the skies are huge and open, the light being especially good in the autumn. The rugged coast was used as the backdrop for the Shackleton film, Heartbeat, Rick Stein's cookery programme, and many documentaries.

Whitby boasts the photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe who captured the life of this fishing town at the turn of the last century. You will find The Sutcliffe Gallery selling his beautiful prints as you walk down to the harbour from Bolthole Cottage. Take your camera and catch the sun rise over the Abbey and the gravestones of long forgotten mariners. In the evening the East Side of the town takes on the russet colours of the setting sun, and sets the pan tiles and cottage windows ablaze. In August catch the Esk Valley Railway and amid small village stations, walk over the expanse of purple heather covered moor, lunch in the excellent village pubs. At Grosmont Station you can transfer to the North Yorks Moors Railway and chug to Pickering pulled by a steam locomotive. (Maps and suggestions for walks are kept in the cottage)

One morning, climb up to the Abbey and follow the Cleveland Way footpath along the coast to Robin Hood's Bay, you will pass Saltwick Bay where there were major alum works. Here the flat bottomed 'cats' (sailing boats of the same design as Captain Cook's Endeavour) were loaded with this precious commodity which was the magic ingredient in making fast the bold colours used in ecclesiastical robes. You will pass the lighthouse, and the building which once housed 'Hawsker Bull' (the fog horn). Robin Hood's Bay has an excellent cafes and pubs also regular bus links with Whitby and Scarborough if you can't face the two hour walk back! (www.arriva.co.uk)

If you are in Whitby in the winter visit the Whitby Book Shop on Church Street buy 'The Floating Egg' by Roger Osborne (potted geology of our coast). Cross the Old Market Place and enter 'The Shambles' you will find comfy leather settees, food or drink and the most brilliant views up and down the Harbour. Sit here and read the papers and watch the boats sail away. Buy kippers to take home from Fortune's up at the bottom of the church steps. The jet shops, and galleries here are interesting. Walk up the church steps when the moon is full and imagine Bram Stoker's Dracula in the guise of a slavering black hound jumping from the Transylvanian schooner below, and galloping up the 199 steps to the graves at the Church of St Mary's.

Whether you bring your camera, paint brush or pen you will find much to sooth and charm you in Whitby. The cottage is warm and cosy, and if you really must - the gym is 2 mins away! Swimming pool 4 mins and the beauty shop just round the corner.

Have a lovely rest!

More information about Bolthole Cottage