Whitby in the Rain: What to Do When the Sky Won’t Play Along

Over the last ten years we have had plenty of wet days in Whitby, mostly in autumn and winter. Sometimes we plan a day off there weeks in advance and go anyway, rain or not; sometimes it just starts when nobody promised it would. This summer we were lucky — but the North Yorkshire coast is not known for its sunshine, so this is the plan we would follow. Half of it is from our own visits, half of it we checked for you, and the post says which is which.

Wet cobbles and shopfronts on Church Street, Whitby, on a rainy day — Church Street in the wet. Short, and the shops are close enough together that you are never really out in it.

Being honest about what we have and have not done

We have had a lot of wet days in Whitby, but we have not been inside everything in this post. Rather than write it as though we had, every stop carries a small grey line under its heading — we have been here, or not yet visited. The second one means we checked the facts and said so, instead of quietly borrowing somebody else’s afternoon.

Before you go: the rain plan in one line

Museums or the shops in the morning while you are fresh, a long sit-down lunch, then the pubs for the afternoon — and if it clears, the walk down to the lighthouse or the beach in the evening, when it is quietest anyway.

Morning: the museums

Captain Cook Memorial Museum

not yet visited

Grape Lane, on the harbour side of the old town. It is the 17th-century house where James Cook lodged as an apprentice, with letters, maps, ship models and paintings from his voyages.

Opening: daily 7 February – 27 March, 10.30am–3pm; daily 28 March – 1 November, 10am–5pm; November to 6 February, Tuesdays and Thursdays only, 11am–3pm.

Admission. £11 an adult; children up to 16 free; exhibitions included. School groups £7 a child, adults free, booking required. Free with a National Art Pass.

Access. It is a Grade I listed house over four floors and that shows. Short ramps link the street entrance, the courtyard and the ground-floor rooms, and a lift from reception reaches the first floor, one wheelchair user and a carer at a time. The upper floors and the attic are not reachable — they are shown on a DVD instead, re-filmed each year. There is one accessible toilet. Blue badge parking is on Church Street, about 100 yards away, and there is a drop-off at the Grape Lane bus bay about 50 yards from the door. Do not drive down Grape Lane itself — it is narrow and really meant for deliveries.

Whitby Museum and the Pannett Art Gallery

not yet visited

In Pannett Park, on the west side. Local history, maritime heritage, natural history, fossils out of the cliffs, Whitby jet and costume, with the art gallery attached.

Opening. Tuesday to Sunday, 10am–4.30pm, last admission 4pm. Closed Mondays.

Admission. Adults £9. Children free (under 18 in full-time education). Students £5 with an NUS card or ID. Groups of ten or more, £5 a head.

Café. Flock Coffee & Kitchen at the museum, Tuesday to Sunday 10am–3.30pm, last orders 3pm, and closed Sundays from the beginning of September.

Whitby Lifeboat Museum

not yet visited

The old RNLI lifeboat station on Pier Road, turned into a museum, with two lifeboats and the story of a station that has been going out to people in trouble since 1802.

Opening. Summer, every day 11am–4pm from 15 February; winter, Saturday and Sunday 11am–4pm. Hours can vary a little depending on volunteer availability.

Admission. Free.

St Mary’s Church

we have been here

At the top of the 199 steps, next to the Abbey. A working parish church founded around 1110, though the inside is mostly late 18th century. There is not a great deal to see and the church is small, but that interior is the point: box pews, galleries climbing over each other and an elaborate three-decker pulpit. It is free to go in, and there is a gift shop by the door.

Bram Stoker spent a holiday in Whitby in August 1890 and the town went straight into Dracula: the wreck on Tate Hill Sands, the black dog that comes ashore and bolts up the 199 steps, and this churchyard, where Lucy sleepwalks to a bench and Mina runs up the steps after her. There is no Dracula’s grave to find — the graves here belong to Whitby people.

The path through St Mary's churchyard to the church door, Whitby, under grey cloud — The path through the churchyard. The graves are Whitby’s, not the novel’s.

Open 10am–4pm Monday to Friday and Sunday, and from 11.15am on Saturdays — checked October 2026. If you are coming up for this, remember the 199 steps are 199 steps in the wet.

Looking up Whitby's 199 steps on a grey day — 199 steps, and they do not get shorter in the rain.

Whitby Abbey visitor centre

we have been here

Most of the Abbey is an open-air ruin, so it is not a rain plan on its own — but the visitor centre is under a roof, and tickets are free for English Heritage members. Full guide in our Whitby Abbey post.

The ruins of Whitby Abbey under heavy cloud — The Abbey does something for a heavy sky that it never manages in sunshine.

Between the doors: the shops on Church Street

we have been here

You do not have to be indoors all day. A lot of a wet Whitby works in short bursts — three minutes of weather, then a door — and Church Street is built for exactly that. It is short, and the shops are close enough together that you are never really out in it.

Whitby has its own way of shopping: rows of small independent shops selling every sort of thing — gifts, sweets, jewellery, art, goth clothes, antiques. It is interesting just to look, and you might find something for yourself or for a present. I am not really an antiques person, but in recent years I have started enjoying those shops — it is amazing what rubbish, and what genuinely interesting things, they turn out to be selling.

Shoppers in winter coats on Church Street, Whitby — Coats up, heads down, and a shop every few yards.

Inside a Whitby rock and sweet shop, counters full of sticks of rock — The sweet shops are a reliable twenty minutes with children, and about four pounds.

Most of the shops open mid-morning and shut by late afternoon, and out of season some do not open at all — so do the shops early rather than saving them for four o’clock.

One place I have always wanted to do is the photography studio that shoots in the old style: they dress you in period clothes, do your hair, and sit you down like people on an old postcard. You have to go very early to book a slot, which we have never managed, and nobody in the family except me wants the experience. So, maybe one day.

Arcades

we have been here

One of our children’s favourite places, and it does not matter whether they are 8 or 20. We like it too, because on the second floor of one of them there is mini golf and a few games you can play on your own or in pairs. And of course the coin slot machines — the children get £5 each to spend, and Ian amuses himself collecting the coins that drop after somebody else has played. The best game for all of us is finding the slot machine with the highest chance of dropping the prize — it does not matter what the prize is, or that it cost a penny — and then working out the strategy to get it, which can mean standing and waiting half an hour for somebody else to finish their go. We can easily spend two hours in there.

Inside a lit amusement arcade in Whitby — Two hours, £5 each, and nobody notices the weather.

Escape rooms

not yet visited

I am a bit claustrophobic, so I have never done one, but my daughter likes them. There are two in Whitby. An hour to solve it and get out, suitable more for adults and older children but accessible from age 8. Under-16s must be with an adult, groups of two to six, starting roughly every two hours from 11am or midday until 6pm or 7pm. Book ahead.

Eskape — two rooms, from £60 for two.
Sherlocks Escape Room — from £50 for two.

Tours, for beer and gin people

not yet visited

Whitby Brewery tour — £15, and you can add three one-third-pint tasters. Run by a local guide, Devon, on Tuesdays and either Friday or Saturday. Book two to three weeks ahead.
Whitby Distillery tour — how they make their award-winning spirits and how the distillery started, with three tastings. £25 a head, Thursday to Sunday at varying times.

Lunch: sit down and take your time

Abbey Wharf

we have been here

Market Place, on the harbour. It is large — over 250 covers, a second floor (booking only) and a long balcony over the harbour — so it is the safest bet when everyone else in Whitby is also looking for a roof. Homemade batter, cooked in beef dripping, a menu that goes well beyond fish and chips, and a few options for craft beer drinkers. In August 2026 it was full and we still waited inside for a table. On a wet day, book. They put music on some Saturday evenings — check their website.

Fish and chips with mushy peas at Abbey Wharf, Whitby — The whole point of a wet day: somewhere to sit for an hour and a half. Abbey Wharf, August 2026.

Why not the Magpie on a wet day

we have been here

The Magpie Café on Pier Road is the one everybody knows, but it is small inside and the queue stands outside. Fine in sunshine. Not in rain — though you might be lucky out of season. Trenchers and Hadley’s are both good, and both have room to sit.

The Magpie Café on Pier Road, Whitby, with flower baskets — The Magpie, on a day when standing outside was not a problem.

Afternoon: the pubs (Ian’s department)

we have been to all of them

Ian visited seven Whitby craft bars in one day for his Taps post. On a wet afternoon, these are the ones with a roof worth sitting under. They are listed in the order he walked into them, not best to worst — the ranking is his job, and it is in his post.

Helmsley Brewing Co Tap Room

Wesley Hall, Church Street. A converted Methodist hall — 1901 wall tiles, herringbone parquet, roof beams, stained glass, organ pipes still over the bar — and worth walking into even for a soft drink. (Some guides still list a jet museum here. It isn’t one now.) Dog friendly. Sharing the premises is a separate business doing Asian-inspired street food — good flavours, and fresh. The place does get mixed reviews for slow service when it is short-staffed, so do not come in a hurry.

The Green Dragon

4–5 Grape Lane. Two small rooms, twelve keg taps and four casks, all well kept. If you only have one pint in Whitby, Ian says have it here. Dogs welcome.

Beer O’Clock

11 Flowergate. The nicest room of the day — a converted greengrocer’s with wood-planked walls — and open noon to 10.45pm every day, so it is the most reliable door in town. Dogs welcome. Every time we have been it has been standing room only, so on a wet day go early.

The Esk Vaults

5a Golden Lion Bank. Not for the room — for the board. It opens late (4pm most days, 1pm on Saturdays), so it is an end-of-afternoon stop. They do stone baked pizza too. Come earlier and the best pork sandwich in Whitby is right below it, at The Greedy Pig — open until 4pm.

If it clears

Whitby weather changes fast. If the rain stops at any point, walk down to the beach by the West or East Pier — it is our favourite hour of any Whitby day.

Whitby quayside and harbour under a dramatic grey sky — When it lifts, it lifts fast, and the harbour is worth standing still for.

And if you do not fancy the beach, just walk out to one of the lighthouses. A grey stormy sea with big waves breaking against the pier is worth standing in the wind for.

The walkway along Whitby's West Pier with a rough sea beyond the railing — The West Pier, with the sea doing the entertaining.

And stay for the dark. Once the last coach has gone and the shutters are down, Church Street hands itself back — your own footsteps coming off the cobbles, a lit window here and there, the Abbey somewhere above you in the black. Standing in that, it is not hard to see what Stoker saw. It is the best twenty minutes of a wet day in Whitby and it costs nothing at all.

A lit shop window on a Whitby street after dark — And when the light goes, the shops do the rest.

If the sky does play along, we have written up the dry version too — our walking route for a day in Whitby, from the Abbey down to the beach.

Our own visits, our own money, our own opinions. No paid placements, and no arrangement with any venue mentioned.

Addresses

Captain Cook Memorial Museum
Grape Lane, Whitby YO22 4BA
cookmuseumwhitby.co.uk

Whitby Museum and Pannett Art Gallery
Pannett Park, Whitby YO21 1RE
whitbymuseum.org.uk

Whitby Lifeboat Museum
Pier Road, Whitby YO21 3PU
rnli.org

St Mary’s Church
Abbey Lane, Whitby YO22 4JR

Abbey Wharf
Market Place, Whitby YO22 4DD
abbeywharfwhitby.co.uk

Helmsley Brewing Co Tap Room
Wesley Hall, Church Street, Whitby YO22 4DE
helmsleybrewingco.co.uk

The Green Dragon
4–5 Grape Lane, Whitby YO22 4BA

Beer O’Clock
11 Flowergate, Whitby YO21 3BA

The Esk Vaults
5a Golden Lion Bank, Whitby YO21 3BS

Prices and opening hours were checked in October 2026. They move — check before you set off.

Whitby in the Rain: What to Do When the Sky Won’t Play Along

Being honest about what we have and have not done

Before you go: the rain plan in one line