0 Scarborough (Take Two) and Whitby Abbey

We took my mom to Scarborough, since it's a great city to visit with a cool castle.  Again, we had a cold, blustery day- we'll have to go one day next summer just to enjoy the beach! 

The architecture here (these terraced houses are the closest to the beach in this area, just down the street from the castle) reminds me of San Francisco.  The difference is, as I commented to Paul, in San Francisco they'd say "These houses are 100 years old!!" and in Scarborough "These houses are only 100 years old!!"  (I don't actually know how old these particular houses are.)

Since we'd already seen the castle (previous post) Paul, Sloan, Max, and I spent most of the time just walking the grounds looking at the views.

Anne Bronte's grave in St. Mary's Church graveyard.

After strolling along the harbor in Scarborough and stopping for some fish and chips, we headed over to Whitby.  Unfortunately we got there with only about 45 minutes of daylight left, so we didn't explore the town any, but here's a view from near the Abbey.

The harbor/ocean view from near the Abbey.

And... Whitby Abbey!  These ruins date mostly from the 13th century.

Looking towards the presbytery over the pond.

The inside of the presbytery.

Presbytery wall.

Lovely little sitting area.

Detail near the West front.

Unfortunately we had an abrupt end to our visit to Whitby, as Sloan decided to tempt fate and give us all heart attacks.  Paul was looking over a wall into the courtyard of Whitby Abbey House, a grand home built by the Cholmleys during the 1600s, and now used as the museum/entrance point to the ruins.  The wall Paul was looking over was about three feet on the Abbey side, but had a fourteen foot drop to the courtyard on the opposite side.  Sloan, who Paul had on a 16ft retractable leash with her harness (thankfully!), decided to run over and, without pausing, leap over the wall.   From her scrapes we believe she landed first on her rear feet, as the courtyard was covered in tiny, smooth rocks and she had some scratches and cuts between her toes, then she fell to her knees, evidenced by deeper scratches on both of those.  No broken bones, no torn ligaments, no cracked teeth... we all felt very fortunate.  However, because of the panic set in (even Max was panicked!) we decided to go ahead and leave, and in case she exhibited signs of internal injuries we wanted to be able to get her to a veterinarian as quickly as possible.  She's fine, although we now are careful to take precautions at ALL sites- she's far too much of a daredevil!!