WHERE WAS DRACULA WRITTEN?

Cruden Bay

Where was Dracula written? OK, so let’s frame this question a bit more exactly: Where was the final version of Dracula written (but not counting the long planning phase as part of the writing process)? That’s because Bram Stoker started planning the novel from at least 1890 but didn’t get going on the actual writing until 1894 or 1895. The answer is that much of the final version of the book, possibly all of it, was written in the village of Cruden Bay on the north-east coast of Scotland. 

Kilmarnock Arms Hotel, Cruden Bay. 

According to the biography by Harry Ludlam, the book came to life in August 1895 on Bram Stoker’s third visit to Cruden Bay: ‘And here one day, to the sound of the sea on the Scottish shore, Count Dracula made his entry.’ That and: ‘Jonathan Harker's alarming experiences in the Castle Dracula, comprising the first chapters of the book, were written at Cruden Bay.’ His source was Noel Stoker. In 1895 the Stokers stayed at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay where they signed the guest book. Noel was 15 years old at the time. 

Bram, Florence and Noel's signatures in the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel guest book, 1895. 

There is a discrepancy between Ludlam’s account and Bram Stoker’s version of events. Interviewed in June 1897 shortly after Dracula came out Bram mentioned that, ‘he had spent about three years in writing it.’ On this basis the writing started in 1894.

What’s going on here? I don’t know but here’s some speculation. Research is under way on an alternative draft of Dracula which was serialised in Sweden (and an Icelandic spin-off looks to be based on this). It’s been suggested by experts that this could be an earlier draft of the book. If so, the version we read today may have been a rewrite which Bram Stoker started working on in 1895. We may know more before long.

When Bram was in Cruden Bay, he probably wrote the book in several locations around the village. He was known to take an early morning walk across Cruden Bay beach every day. The journalist Gordon Casely, who came to Cruden Bay in the 1960s to interview villagers that knew the author, told me that Bram’s gait was described as distinctive. He walked with his hands behind his back and his head slightly stooped as if he was deep in thought. 

Cruden Bay beach

According to his wife Florence, when he was writing Dracula he took to the beach more than usual, often spending hours perched like a giant bat on the rocks of the shore – probably the Sand Craig at the southern end of the beach. He also wrote Dracula sitting up in bed in his hotel room as he once told a reporter.

Bram returned to Aberdeenshire in 1896 to complete Dracula. He had recently returned from a long tour in the United States with the Lyceum Theatre Company; he held a full-time job as the business manager for the company.  He started his trip by touring the north coast of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire. He was definitely present in the village of Gardenstown and the town of Banff because letters from his boss Henry Irving reached him there. Unfortunately there is as yet no direct evidence to place him in Cruden Bay in 1896 although he was probably there. The relevant pages from the hotel guest book are missing for the summer of 1896.

I suspect that 1896 was the year that he moved out of the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel to what would become his main base in years to come. This was Hilton Cottage, about two hundred yards up the road from the hotel and which was run as an annexe for hotel visitors. A favourite spot was a grassy strip of lawn at the front of the cottage with a spectacular view over the village and towards the sea. There are several reports that he was seen writing here: Gordon Casely interviewed one woman who was watching Bram hard at work when a gust of wind blew the papers of the table. She helped him to pick them up. 

Cruden Bay - Hilton Cottage is on the skyline to the right of the house with red roof. 

Cruden Bay was Bram Stoker’s special place; the place he came to write many of his books. One book in particular will be forever associated with the village – Dracula.

My book about how Dracula was written in Scotland - When Brave Men Shudder (Wild Wolf Publishing) will be available in bookshops and online from the end of November 2018.