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Whitby Abbey named Britain's most romantic ruin
Whitby Abbey has been
voted as Britain's most romantic ruin in a nationwide survey of
2,445 people, carried out by Countryfile Magazine.
In what proved to be a close-run poll, the spectacular coastal
ruin won first place ahead of Fountains Abbey, also in Yorkshire,
and Corfe Castle in Dorset, which took second and third place
respectively. Carreg Cennen Castle in Carmarthenshire came in
fourth place.
Countryfile Magazine asked the UK's leading conservation and
heritage bodies to name their most romantic ruins, and from the
resulting list of 50 properties a panel of judges, led by
Countryfile presenter John Craven, whittled this down to just 10
sites. Readers were then asked to vote for their favourite.
John Craven said: "It's a well-deserved winner. The abbey ruins
dominate my favourite coastal town. When I was a boy, my family
rented a holiday cottage at the foot of the 199 steps that lead to
it and I regularly climbed them just for fun.
"The view from the top is breath-taking, the setting couldn't be
more romantic, and among the abbey's legacy is something that still
affects us all every year: the ruins mark the spot where in 664 the
date for Easter was set."
Fergus Collins, Editor of Countryfile Magazine, added: "Whitby
Abbey fought off a strong challenge from perhaps better-known sites
such as Corfe Castle and Fountains Abbey. But if you've ever
visited this haunting ruin on the Yorkshire coast, you'll see why
it won."