In a previous post almost a year ago https://inthecountrynotinthecountry.com/2020/11/29/spooky-north-yorkshire-coast/. I spoke about some ghostly goings on in Whitby. On Thursday, myself and Mally took ourselves off to Whitby for the evening for a ghost walking tour. We arrived in the afternoon…it’s only a 25 minute drive from our house. I was determined to scout the local shops out for a painting fitting for above the fireplace in our newly decorated front room. I was hoping that Whitby would provide me with a moody seascape to fit in with the other Cornish smugglers paintings I have hanging on the wall.
So I dragged Mally around the galleries in Whitby despite his knee absolutely killing him. However, everything was too bright and not the moody print I was looking for. By the time I had finished I was becoming Hangry (hungry and angry). Whitby was packed and we couldn’t find anywhere to eat. We managed after going round several times to find a seat in The Angel Hotel (a local Wetherspoons) which we were also staying in. We had a few drinks and few plates of food and waited the four hours for the start of the ghost walk. Yes four hours seems a long time but not when you are in a pub!!
Now onto the ghost walk. We hauled ourselves up from our beer, wine and nachos and made our way towards the whale bones in Whitby. Anyone who knows Whitby, knows it’s a slog up some stairs….I’ll call them stairs not steps as you’ll find out why later…
On the stairs there was a guy with a crutch trying to walk up and a lady coming down with a knee brace and Mally limping up. We all laughed as it seemed to be a meeting of those with knee injuries…well I laughed.
At the top of the cliff we approached the whale bones and I could see a crowd was already waiting for our guide….Dr Crank. Turns out Dr Crank was in fact a retired real doctor. I’m no Sherlock Holmes but I don’t think Crank was his real surname.
A couple with an Irish wolf hound had joined the walk and it seemed totally apt as tales of hell hounds dominate this area’s spooky history.
The reason for the Whale bones is the fact that a lot of whaling boats set sail from Whitby a couple of hundred years ago. (Thankfully that practice no longer exists in this country!). Also a lot of ships left Whitby and went straight to the North Pole,Whitby was the last port on that latitude.
So a gentleman all dressed in black and with a black walking stick approached the whale bones. We all just assumed he was Dr Crank and around twenty of us handed over our £7 for the 80 minute tour…turns out that wasn’t Dr Crank at all…I’m only joking it was.
Dr Crank led us on a tour around the alleyways and streets. Telling ghost stories of Dracula, two black cats that menaced a few streets…spoiler alert…they were actually witches. Dr Crank was very funny and very engaging. It was a really enjoyable tour. He touched on the hand of glory which I referred to in my earlier blog. Apparently a gristly hand of glory now resides in Whitby museum, I shall have to pay a visit soon to witness the ghastly spectacle. We stopped off in one street. Near a Dutch house which is said to be a haunted by a poltergeist. The Irish wolf hound belonging to a young couple on the tour suddenly started barking as soon as Dr Crank mentioned the word poltergeist…put the wind up us all at that moment in time!
Now I come onto why I called the steps up to the whale bone stairs. According to the good doctor the folk in Whitby call steps, stairs..I didn’t find out the reasoning behind it…maybe there isn’t one.
In the country not in the country 