Whitby Abbey: Yorkshire coast landmark named in Lonely Planet's Secret Wonders of the World as one of the top 10 global vampire hunting hotspots

As we approach the Halloween season Lonely Planet has published its latest roundup of top 10 global vampire hunting spots - and this Yorkshire landmark made the top of the list.

Lonely Planet has compiled the world’s most interesting landmarks, supernatural landscapes, and spooky hot spots in its new title: Secret Wonders of the World.

The categories include the top 10 international vampire hunting hubs which are timed conveniently ahead of Halloween.

The list was curated based on the cultural, architectural, and literary connections to vampire stories at various locations.

It was no surprise that Whitby Abbey was placed at the top of the list due to its connection with Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Lonely Planet’s review of Whitby Abbey stated: “The eerie setting of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, Whitby Abbey is where the tale of a shipwreck inspired an iconic scene in the story.

“Vampire culture lives on at the alternative music and cultural festival the Whitby Goth Weekend, taking place in April each year.”

A few of the areas in the list are in the US including New Orleans in Louisiana where there is the French Quarter’s Vampire Cafe with a subculture of ‘sanguinarian’ (blood-drinking) vampires who only drink from willing volunteers.

Further US areas include Forks in Washington, home of Stephanie Meyer’s vampires and werewolves from her four-part Twilight series, Mercy Brown Gravestone in Rhode Island and Bela Lugosi’s Grave in California; immortalised in the 1931 film Dracula, the Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi was buried in a vampire cloak at the Greater Los Angeles Holy Cross Cemetery which has become a landmark for goths and classic horror film enthusiasts.

Other areas of the world include Orava Castle in Slovakia, Pontianak, West Kalimantan in Indonesia, a city that was named after a long-haired female vampire known as the Pontianak, Cachtice Castle in Slovakia, home to a nightmare of the 13th century patriarchy when Elizabeth Bathory was accused of murdering several young women at Cachtice Castle, Olsany Cemetery in Prague where a spirit of an older man, Krvave koleno (Bloody Knee), is thought to lick blood from the scuffed knees of clumsy travellers and Poienari Citadel in Arefu, Romania.

This castle is built by the ‘real’ Dracula, otherwise known as Vlad ‘the Impaler’ Tepes of Poienari and is situated on a dramatic crag.

Lonely Planet Secret Wonders of the World is available to buy at Lonely Planet’s website and selected bookshops for £22.99.