10 BEST PORT

WHITBY

Anyone who has read Dracula will know that the Transylvanian vampire arrived in Britain via the port of Whitby. It's a suitably dramatic town with a ruined cliff-top abbey that has been home to several saints, with narrow streets of red pan-tiled houses below and a memorial to Captain James Cook which gazes romantically out to sea. Cook learned seamanship in Whitby where the harbour was always full of whaling ships, colliers and the herring fleet that contributed massively to the town's prosperity.

Fishing, supported by tourism, is still a mainstay of Whitby's economy and its harbour is sheltered by two Grade II listed piers, both with working lighthouses. The west lighthouse (1831) is 84 feet high and has a foghorn that sounds a blast every 30 seconds during reduced visibility at sea. This is a working harbour designed to protect fishermen whose lives depend on the often stormy North Sea.