{"id":8656,"date":"2024-02-26T20:13:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T20:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/exploring-ancient-england-robin-hoods-bay-and-whitby-abbey\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T09:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:54:50","slug":"exploring-ancient-england-robin-hoods-bay-and-whitby-abbey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/exploring-ancient-england-robin-hoods-bay-and-whitby-abbey\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Things To Do In Whitby And Robin Hood\u2019s Bay In England: A Yorkshire Coast Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our second day in Yorkshire begun the way every good morning in England should \u2013 with a full English breakfast complete with all the works.<\/p>\n

Fed and ready to explore even more of this beautiful part of England, we hot-footed it from our lodge at the Ravenshall Hotel<\/a> over to nearby Robin Hood Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Now, I have to be honest, I\u2019d only really been intrigued about visiting Robin Hood\u2019s bay because of Robin Hood (I didn\u2019t even know that much about the town itself or the history) but as soon as we arrived and started to explore its quaint little streets, it was pretty much love at first sight!<\/p>\n

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Thankfully, we had a tour guide booked for the afternoon to show us around (we went with Baytown<\/a> and they do all kinds of tours for all kinds of people \u2013 the most popular of which is probably their beer tours<\/a> which I’d happily return for someday soon).<\/p>\n

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Robin Hood\u2019s Bay<\/a> is a small fishing village down by the coast and in the past used to be home to many a smuggler! In these tiny streets, things like gin, tea, rum and brandy were smuggled into England. Fancy that – smuggling tea! \ud83d\ude00 \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

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Anyway, the very first question I asked as soon as we started was a.) \u201cWas Robin Hood actually real?<\/em>\u201d and b.) \u201cDid he live here?<\/em>\u201d. Turns out, Robin Hood might have referred to not just one person but several people. I can\u2019t remember all the details but from what I recall – the concept of the outlaws stealing from the rich to give to the poor seems to have been but Robin Hood was a nickname of sorts given to the bandits who did stuff like this.<\/p>\n

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Suffice to say, lots of dodge dealings went on in these now quiet quaint streets and you can\u2019t help but be impressed as you walk through.<\/p>\n

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One of said interesting spots is \u201cFisherman\u2019s Arms\u201d where, after the police (back in those days) raided the smugglers and took over their contraband, they then proceeded to help themselves to their gin, rum, brandy and whatever other liquor was available.<\/p>\n

Drunk police, of course, are sleepy police so when the police all went to sleep, the smugglers came back and stole everything back from the police. ( \ud83d\ude00 I keep saying \u201cpolice\u201d but I have no idea if they were called \u201cpolice\u201d back then \u2013 whatever they were called, they were the equivalent of the police we have in today\u2019s times).<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s just so much stuff at every turn here, which is surprising considering how relatively small the village is.<\/p>\n

Then there are the houses, many of which are centuries old and still serve as homes to the families that owned them back then. In this little village, you wouldn\u2019t be surprised if you bought a house here and found that it had secret tunnels leading to an escape route by the sea (though I\u2019d rather hope mine led to a secret cellar with hundreds of bottle of aged rum and gin!).<\/p>\n

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Eventually, stopped for lunch at the Old Post Office<\/a>, a fun and quirkly little spot which isn\u2019t really a post office anymore but a caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

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We wasted no time in ordering up Yorkshire tea, thick deep-filled sandwiches and ginger beers \u2013 all of which filled the spot quite nicely!<\/p>\n

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With that, we said farewell to beautiful Robin Hood\u2019s Bay and headed over to the nearby town of Whitby, which we\u2019d actually been in the night before<\/a> but didn\u2019t quite get to explore.<\/p>\n

Much as I wanted to explore the town of Whitby, there was one place I had to stop in first \u2013 the amazing (and rather impressive) Whitby Abbey<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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^And yes, that\u2019s the wind running away with my hat!<\/em><\/p>\n

Whitby Abbey<\/a> is almost 1,400 years old (one of the oldest in England – it was built in 657) and only fell into ruin, like many other abbeys and monasteries across the U.K., when Henry the 8th<\/sup> (yup, the same one that beheaded his many wives \u2013 including Anne Boleyn) decided to dissolve them all and use their wealth to fund his conquests (this Wikipedia page here<\/a> has far more detail on all this than I can attempt to explain here).<\/p>\n

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As a result of the above, Whitby Abbey is technically a \u2018ruin\u2019 but boy what an impressive ruin it is!<\/p>\n

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Roaming through its gothic halls, you can\u2019t help but be impressed! You can also see why Whitby Abbey is considered the birthplace of Dracula as it\u2019s the very place that inspired Bram Stoker to write the books.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s hall after all of stunning architecture here and you can\u2019t help but have your mind wander when you visit \u2013 trying to imagine how grand it must have been about 700 years ago before Henry the 8th<\/sup> pillaged it.<\/p>\n

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One of the best views of the cathedral if from the pond right in front of it (one a calm day, the cathedral reflects on the pond and makes for quite the sight).<\/p>\n

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After much pottering around, trying to soak up as much of the sight of this impressive cathedral as possible, we finally decided to head over to Whitby for a drink and to have a look at this pretty little coastal town.<\/p>\n

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One of the best views of Whitby is from up here by the Abbey, by the way, so be sure to check it out before you head into town!<\/p>\n

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Alas, by the time we got into Whitby, seeing as we were visiting in autumn (slash \u201calmost winter\u201d), it got fairly dark fairly quickly \u2013 the perfect excuse for mucking around in its colourfully kitsch and rather retro arcades\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u2026 before wandering down the streets in search of beers, pots of tea and maybe even a cheeky little pre-dinner fish and chips. (We ended up deciding not to spoil our dinner with fish and chips beforehand but if you\u2019re here and looking for where to go \u2013 by and large, the recommendation by everyone we spoke to was to head to The Magpie Caf\u00e9 \u2013 even people who lived in other cities recommended going here).<\/p>\n

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^ Those are the fishermen returning for the day with their fresh catch!<\/em><\/p>\n

Dinner for tonight was like dinner the previous night \u2013 Michelin Star Chef delicious! Thing is, again, I didn\u2019t know it at the time \u2013 I just knew that the Estbek House<\/a> in Sandsend (which is actually still in Whitby) was a place that everyone recommended going to for food and so that\u2019s what we did.<\/p>\n

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You start off your evening with a drink in the bar downstairs (Gin and Tonic for me) while trying to decide what you want to eat.<\/p>\n

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Partway through your drink, you\u2019ll then get shown to your table upstairs where your feasting for the evening will commence!<\/p>\n

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We started off with a little soup (compliments of the chef) before tucking into some freshly smoked salmon (all done in-house) and a whitebait with calamari (for myself and Lloyd respectively).<\/p>\n

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For mains, seeing as Yorkshire\u2019s seafood is pretty spectacular, I went for cod and Lloyd went for the turbot, served with sides of vegetables and mash.<\/p>\n

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The meals so far had been absolutely delightful! As soon as you tuck in, you know why everyone had recommended coming here! I just love it when we get restaurants so right. Estbek House<\/a> was absolutely perfect!<\/p>\n

Dessert comes out in smaller portions which is absolutely fantastic as you get so much more choice to have! I\u2019d recommend having 2 or 3, though I ended up having 3 and a half once Lloyd and I found out about the liquorice ice cream. I don\u2019t like liquorice typically, my tastes when it comes to sweet stuff is a bit too obvious to indulge in liquorice but when the waitress recommended trying the ice cream (along with the promise that it was like \u201cnothing we\u2019d ever tasted\u201d), Lloyd and I obliged with the caveat that we would have to share it and boy was it worth it!<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s the perfect mix of that liquorice taste and flavour, without that bitter\/strange after-taste you get with liquorice. It\u2019s absolutely fantastic and I can\u2019t recommend it enough now that I\u2019ve had it.<\/p>\n

The other desserts we went for were a mix of cr\u00e8me brulees, ice creams, trifles and much more (*you can see all the desserts available here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Suffice to say, we left Estbek House in a state of food euphoria \u2013 so much so that by the time we got back to the lodge at the Ravenshall Hotel, I finally decided to try my hands at lighting the fire (I\u2019d wanted to do this since the night before).<\/p>\n

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Firelight, cup of tea in hand, I can\u2019t even begin to describe how pleased I was that we\u2019d finally decided to visit Yorkshire. What an absolutely special part of England. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our second day in Yorkshire begun the way every good morning in England should \u2013 with a full English breakfast complete with all the works. Fed and ready to explore even more of this beautiful part of England, we hot-footed it from our lodge at the Ravenshall Hotel over to nearby Robin Hood Bay. Now, … Continue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,396],"tags":[359,355,930,361,931,439],"class_list":["post-8656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-travel-journal","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-robin-hoods-bay","tag-united-kingdom","tag-whitby","tag-yorkshire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}