Whitby Abbey

Whitby, United Kingdom

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

Find out more

Whitby Abbey was a 7th-century Christian monastery perched on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England, overlooking the North Sea in what was then the heart of the medieval Northumbrian kingdom. The site later became a Benedictine abbey until its confiscation and dissolution under Henry VIII between 1536 and 1545. The substantial Gothic ruins of the abbey church have served mariners as a navigational landmark for centuries and are now Grade I listed and scheduled monuments in the care of English Heritage. A site museum, established in 2002 by design studio Stanton Williams within the adjacent 17th-century Cholmley House, interprets the abbey's rich history.