St Mary's Church, Whitby

Most visitors climb the 199 steps for the abbey, but the parish church of St Mary next door is at least as remarkable. Built around 1110, it was fitted out in the 18th century by Whitby's ship's carpenters, who filled it with box pews, galleries on wooden pillars, a three-decker pulpit and skylights, so that the interior feels like the lower deck of a ship. The Cholmley family pew stands on barley-sugar columns right across the chancel arch.

The churchyard, with its weathered headstones leaning in the sea wind, is where Bram Stoker set some of the most memorable scenes of Dracula. There is no vampire's grave, whatever anyone tells you, but the view over the harbour and the town is the best in Whitby.