By GARETH HUW DAVIES

Heady heights: The 199 steps give a great view across the harbour


Whitby is one of our most perfect seaside resorts, with a historic heart tucked down a deep valley on the North Yorkshire coast. It's also the place where Bram Stoker created his best-known fictional character, Dracula, with the vampire entering England after his ship crashes into the town's pier. Here Gareth Huw Davies gives his must-do list for the resort...

Take the train
My entrance to Whitby was more sedate than Dracula's. He smashed straight into the pier; I came by train, up the attractive Esk Valley. Whitby is good option for a long weekend, as you won't need a car in this small town. Occasional steam trains run here over the North Yorkshire Moors from Pickering.

You can walk round town in half a day. Start on West Cliff at the whalebone arch (a memorial to Whitby whalers) and the statue of great explorer James Cook, who began his seafaring life here.

Over the ancient swing bridge is the old town with its alleyways, cobbled streets and shops selling the town's famous black jet jewellery, a minor gemstone found nearby and made famous by Queen Victoria who used it as part of her mourning dress.

History on high
It's one of the great climbs in Britain: the 199 stone steps leading up from the old town to East Cliff. My ascent was a bit more leisurely than Mina's frantic dash up to rescue her friend Lucy from an awful end in Dracula. I kept stopping to take photographs over red pantiled roofs to the harbour below.

St Mary's Church, at the top of the steps, is an 18th and 19th Century composite delight with a Norman tower, box pews where the faithful could hunker down in comfort for a long sermon, a threetier pulpit and a charcoal boiler.

Hero exposed
One of the most powerful images of 19th Century bravery is a photograph of Henry Freeman in the then-new cork flotation jacket. He was the only crew member of the Whitby lifeboat wearing one when the vessel sank in a storm just outside the harbour in 1861, and the sole survivor. The photo is the best known work of Frank Sutcliffe, whose pioneering lens ranged widely over people and places in and around the town. His work is in Whitby's Sutcliffe Gallery.

Also have a look at the Whitby Art Gallery and Museum in Pannett Park. It displays various views of the town, from peaceful harbour scenes to the bombardment in 1914 by two German battlecruisers.


Splash of colour: Whitby is one of our most perfect seaside resorts


Catch of the day
My fish at Green's restaurant (roasted brill served with braised vegetables, Yorkshire pork belly, caramelised apples and a cider and wholegrain mustard cream) came from the Good Intent, Abbey Lee, Maggie M, Our Lass II, or perhaps one of Whitby's other fishing boats. I know this because restaurant chef and owner Rob Green lists them, and their captains, on his menu.

He's down on the quayside every day to see what has been caught, sourcing his produce from them 'wherever possible'. In 2009, Rob won the fish industry's Seafood Chef of the Year award. There are plaudits, too, for the town's chip shops, led by the eminent Magpie Cafe. Rick Stein said it showed him how good a chip shop could be.

Wander off
A signpost next to the Abbey car park points to Cleveland Way. It marks the start of an epic walk south along the cliffs, part of the 110-mile national trail around the North Yorkshire Moors. I sampled two wild and thrilling clifftop miles on the stretch to Robin Hood's Bay. There were huge views with wild water on my left, glowering moors on my right. I met only one other walker and about 10,000 birds. Another way south is on the Moor to Sea Cycle Route, on the line of the long-shut Whitby-Scarborough railway.

Gareth Huw Davies travelled with East Coast trains (www.eastcoast.co.uk).


source: dailymail