Fodor's Expert Review Whitby Abbey

Set high on the East Cliff, the strikingly Gothic ruins of this once grand church are visible even from moorland hills miles away. The abbey, one of the very few founded by a woman (St. Hild in AD 657), was populated by a mixed community of monks and nuns. After the Vikings sacked it in the 9th century, it was refounded by the Benedictines in the 11th century and later enlarged (the headland is dominated by the shell of the abbey's 13th-century church), continuing to flourish until it was destroyed by Henry VIII. The excellent visitor center has exhibits on St. Hild and Dracula author Bram Stoker, Anglo-Saxon artifacts from the site, and interactive displays about the medieval abbey.