1. ‘When first I saw the place I fell in love with it’

Bram Stoker wrote a large part of Dracula in my home village of Cruden Bay. It’s located on the coast of Aberdeenshire in Scotland facing the North Sea. Bram was for most of his life a part-time author; his main job was as business manager for the Lyceum Theatre in London. From 1893 he would spend a month in the village every summer and would do so most years up until 1910. Most of his books were written in Cruden Bay.

I’m fascinated by the local association with Cruden Bay and I’ve been researching his time here for a book of my own. The blog will focus mostly on photographs, more details will be found in my book if and when it gets published.

Bram Stoker’s Cruden Bay is recognisable today - most of the buildings he knew are still around. The village was known as Port Erroll back then only becoming Cruden Bay in 1923. It was primarily a fishing village with about 300 out of the 500 inhabitants involved in fishing.

Fishing boat near Port Erroll Harbour.

Port Erroll in 1896 as Bram Stoker would have recognised it.

A similar view from a recent photograph. 

Bram Stoker came for the coastal scenery. He walked across Cruden Bay beach every morning before breakfast. His visits to the village gave him a regular slot to devote to his writing. And if there were any problems he could head off for a walk along the coast to think things over.

Cruden Bay beach

No wonder that Bram Stoker wrote in one of his novels based in Cruden Bay: ‘When first I saw the place I fell in love with it.’