Stay at a holiday cottage in Whitby

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by: happyclap
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Word Count: 408
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 Time: 4:58 AM
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There is always something to do in Whitby and depending on the time of year the options are varied. Events held last year included: Whitby Spring Festival, Spirit of the 1940's, Line Dancing Weekend, Gospel Music Convention, Robin Hood's Bay Folk Weekend, Whitby Summer Fishing Festival, music groups Keane and Simply Red both appeared in Dalby Forest, followed by a Northern Soul Weekend, also the Traction Engine Rally near Pickering, Whitby Regatta Folk Week Festival on the Moor and Whitby Late Summer Fishing Festival. The best thing to do is to stay in Whitby as the resorts Ravenscar, Scarborough, Bridlington and Filey, are all within short travelling distance and well worth visiting from your Whitby holiday cottage.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway gets involved in organizing many events in Whitby, and 2010 saw The Spring Steam Gala and a later Steam Gala, Vintage Vehicles, and a 60's Weekend.

One of the main attractions in Whitby is the ruined St Hilda's abbey, or Whitby Abbey, which overlooks Whitby from the East cliff. The abbey was founded in 657AD by Oswy, the then king of Northumbria. The original abbey was built on the site of a roman settlement or signal station and it name was Streanshalh, (Streonshalh) which is thought to translate as fort or tower bay. It was Lady Hilda, the abbess who gave it its local name nowadays, of St Hilda's Abbey.

The abbey was rebuilt from ruins on order of William de Percy, the Norman, in 1078. Alas it fell to ruin again in Henry VIII reign during his blitz on religious buildings, and never recovered.

Whitby is famous for its connection to Bram Stoker's Dracula, and it is the Parish of St. Mary, with its cliff top churchyard, that provided the inspiration for the novel. This is honoured in the twice yearly goth weekend festival, during April and November, when Whitby is fully booked with people coming from all over the world to attend. The majority of the celebrations are held in the towns Spa Pavillion.

A famous Whitby man was the celebrated Captain James Cook, He embarked from Whitby in the Bark Endeavour, a 32.3metre merchant collier during 1764. Renamed the collier Earl of Pembroke, the ship was later used by the navy for exploration and scientific missions. It was eventually accoladed as the HMS Bark Endeavour.

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Beautiful holiday cottages in Yorkshire moors with Holiday Homes Group.