1. Fowey
Though most closely associated with the late 18th and early 19th centuries, gothic fiction has remained enduringly popular. One later example is Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, Rebecca. Dreams are a classic trope of the genre and the book’s opening, ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’, is clever signposting. The haunted country pile at the centre of the story was based on Menabilly,
near Fowey in Cornwall, with which Du Maurier was fascinated. Though Menabilly is not open to the public, the local coastline – conjured so atmospherically in the book – can be explored along the National Trust’s four-mile Gribbin Head walk. nationaltrust.org.uk
2. Haworth
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë wrote most of their novels while living in the West Yorkshire village of Haworth in the early 1800s; their home, Haworth Parsonage, is now a museum. However, for a deeper insight into the most celebrated gothic work by this family – Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – you’ll need to leave the village behind. Head onto the surrounding moors and soak up the atmosphere with a walk past Ponden Hall, the inspiration for Thrushcross Grange (as well as for the titular hall in Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), and Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse said to be the spur for the Earnshaw family home. bronte.org.uk
3. Lacock Abbey
A satirical take on the genre, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey was written in 1803 and published posthumously in 1817. Though much of the story takes place in Bath, the most Gothic building in the book (in the heroine’s imagination, at least) is Northanger Abbey itself. Various locations have been suggested as Austen’s inspiration for the Tilney family’s grand country house, however, Lacock Abbey – not far from Bath, in neighbouring Wiltshire – fits the description neatly. Built in the 13th century as a nunnery, complete with magnificent cloisters, its many later alterations include
an 18th-century Gothic Revival makeover. nationaltrust.org.uk
4. Twickenham
If you enjoyed Luke Honey’s deep- dive into the history of the Gothic Revival on page 27, then you might want to pay a visit to the ‘little Gothic castle’ in Twickenham, south west London, that played such a key part in the story. Long open to the public, Strawberry Hill House – Horace Walpole’s elaborate Gothic Revival villa – is a real showstopper. Managed by a charitable trust that organises events throughout the year, guided tours of the house take place on the second and last Sundays of the month. Highlights include a William Hogarth painting of Horace Walpole as a child, and an intricate set of ebonised beechwood chairs. strawberryhillhouse.org.uk
5. Edinburgh
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 gothic novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, may have been set in London and written in Bournemouth, but it’s thought to be inspired by events in Edinburgh. Local criminals – such as Eugène Chantrelle, a French teacher who was executed for murder in 1878, and Deacon Brodie, an 18th-century councillor and cabinetmaker who spent his nights breaking and entering – are said to have sparked Stevenson’s interest in duality. The city’s Gothic architecture and murky closes (passageways) surely loomed large in the author’s imagination, too. Find out more with a visit to Edinburgh’s Writers’ Museum. edinburghmuseums.org.uk
6. Whitby
When Bram Stoker holidayed in this North Yorkshire fishing town in the summer of 1890, he left with much more than a stick of rock. Already clutching the outline of a story centring on Count Wampyr, he drew various local threads together – reports of a Russian shipwreck, a sea-fogged headland, a bat-harbouring church, an association with jet mourning jewellery, Whitby Abbey’s romantic ruins, and even names from local headstones – to flesh out his legendary gothic tale. Follow in his footsteps by joining one of many Dracula-themed walking tours, but start with a wander around the spectacular 13th-century abbey ruins. english-heritage.org.uk
