Monday 20th September Whitby

As you leave the car parks on the Harbour side the first thing you see is the memorial to Captain Scoresby, who invented the "Crows Nest" so that his sailors could be the first to spot the whales that they were hunting
And here is the retired Whitby lifeboat, now doing service as a pleasure craft, offering sea trips to the visitors
Here a pilot boat is returning to station in the riverside moorings
The new lifeboat is permanently afloat, giving it much faster reponse times in case of an emergency
An old oil drum used as a mooring buoy also serves as a handy perch for these cormorants
This is one of my favourite views across the harbour to the old town

Whitby like all sea side town has lots of souvenir shops along the harbour side.
But there are some rather macabre shops too, like this Dracual Experience, and the the Goth clothing store next door.

Whitby has done very well out of it's connection with the Dracula legend, and even puts on a Goth weekend later in the year when the nights are longer

Some of the buildings are pretty Gothic too, like these stone griffins on top of the bank
After tea I went for a stroll down past the National Trust visitor centre, this is carved into an old Railway sleeper, and depicts a worker in the local Alum Quarry (now long closed)
and here is the view from the same place of a farm in front of the Ravenscar Hotel
I was surprised to find the path to the old Alum mine was partially paved in bricks, till I remember that the Victorians had planned to build a resort near the Hotel to rival Scarborough in size, and had actually started a Brick Works (long closed) down the same lane
Closer examination revealed the surprising fact that every brick bore the name "Ravenscar"

Its a pity that they were never to be used to build the hundreds of houses, hotels and shops originally planned!