Bram Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 in Clontarf Ireland, and attended Trinity College in Dublin. He died on 20 April 1912 aged 64, in London.
Mostly remembered for the gothic horror novel "Dracula", which became the classic that many other horror novels were compared against and it spawned countless film and television versions.
Stoker was inspired by places he had visited and holidayed in.
Near Cruden in Scotland is 'Slain's Castle' seen on a foggy morning the ruins have all the elements for a horror tale.
Slain's Castle was the source material for Dracula's Castle. Stoker visited the area staying at the hotel from 1892 till 1910 and began writing "Dracula" there in 1895. He describes its octagonal room in the novel.
But truly many of its rooms with bricked up doorways, long narrow passageways and circular towers of spiral stairs lend themselves to the eerie and mysterious.
Especially the underground cellar-room of very crypt-like storage niches.
The other important Stoker "Dracula" location is Whitby on the Yorkshire coast. Again Stoker stayed here, and gained inspiration from the wreck of the ship Dimitry/Dimitri which did run aground below Whitby's East Cliff. Atop the cliff stands the stark ruins of Whitby Abbey and the churchyard of St Marys.
Another inspiring location, deemed possible, is the grave of Lucy Westenra (the friend of Mina who becomes a vampiress) believed to be in London at Highgate Cemetery - the sun rises over Hampstead Heath, where Lucy was buried.
Highgate Cemetery has been utilised many times as a location for both books and film.
All hauntingly beautiful and spectral.
