Photographs of Whitby Abbey

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Whitby Abbey is a ruined Benedictine abbey overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire. The first monastery was founded in 657 AD by Oswy, King of Northumbria. He appointed Lady Hilda, abbess of Hartlepool Abbey and niece of Edwin the first Christian king of Northumbria, as founding abbess. The double monastery of Benedictine monks and nuns was laid waste by Danes in successive raids between 867 and 870 and remained a ruin for more than 200 years.
In 1078 William de Percy the first ordered the abbey to be rebuilt. By the year 1220, Whitby Abbey had become one of the wealthiest monasteries in the country, housing dozens of monks. The Abbey was an impressive piece of early Gothic architecture similar to Rievaulx Abbey or York Minster.
On 14th December 1539 the Abbey was closed under the Dissolution of the Monasteries Act. The Abbey church has slowly deteriorated ever since. The monastery buildings were quickly adapted to become Cholmley House. The family lived in the abbey`s lodgings and the gatehouse until they built the Banqueting House in the 17th Century. The Abbey is now managed by English Heritage.