The ruins of Whitby Abbey.
The ruins of Whitby Abbey stand on the cliff top over the the old whaling town of Whitby on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire. The port town has a long history. HMS Endeavour, the ship commanded by James Cook was built in the town and went on to discover Australia and New Zealand. (Much to the relief of the people already living there who now had a place to live.) The Abbey became famous the world over as a backdrop to Dracula's landing in England in the gothic horror story.
Above is probably the most common view of the ruins taken from beyond the pond.
The image above is from a different angle and captures most of what is left of the Abbey that fell into ruin with the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. The Abbey was the second one to be built on the site just after the Norman Conquest. The first Abbbey was founded in 657 AD and became a major site in the early Christian church in Great Britain before being sacked by viking raids in 867 and 870 and it was left in ruins for about 200 years afterwards.
While much of the Abbey is now gone there is enough left to be able to grasp the splendour and importance of this Abbey The large archways that still stand and large windows give an idea of just how large this building would have been.
This Abbey would have been visible for miles as it dominated the clifftop over the town and was a major site for Christianity run by the Benedictine monks. The Abbey is also the burial place of a Saint and a king of Northumbria.
The picture above shows part of one of a passageway built into the walls high up from the ground while in the forground the effects of errosion by the North Sea winds on the limestone used to build it.
Images are mine taken on a family visit.
Could you explain what you mean when speaking of the "discovery" of Australia and New Zealand you say:
Well Europeans went and and discovered all these new land, yet the people living there already knew about them as they lived there so they wern't really the ones who discovered them.
OK, so your parenthesis was sarcasm.
Furthermore James Cook was not the first European to "discover" these lands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia
Yes, I tend to drop sarcasm into things. Didn't know about the Dutch landfall, something that isn't mentioned in UK history for obvious reasons of national pride.
Comming from the places that Cook found/discovered/mapped, even if the Dutch had done a sail by before. We needed a name to know who we were. A greatt post aliebutt, upvoted and will be following for more. Now to read your other posts as this is tne first i had seen.
Thank you
Fantastic pictures
A terrific post. I really like such places! Follow you!
Thank you, I love to visit the old ruins on family days out whenever I can.
Lovely images, especially the last one!
It looks like an awesome place to visit with my camera sometime :-)
It is but make sure you've got a coat on, the North Sea wind up on the cliff top is cold, even on warm days.
Great post enjoyed readieg through it
Thank you.
What an amazing place. Thanks for sharing these great photographs.
amazing place!!!!
I agree, visited it many times when up that way.
@alienbutt I love all the Gothic) Stunning photo! I'll follow you, hoping for reciprocity.
Thank you, followe back.
Thank you!
Fascinating place. Black and white photos creates a dramatic mood.
I think for photographing ruins like this black and white usually works better.