Whitby of St Hilda (657–680). Part of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" was set in Whitby, incorporating pieces of local folklore, including the beaching of the Russian ship "Dmitri". Stoker discovered the name "Dracula" at the old public library. One scholar has suggested that Stoker chose Whitby as the site of Dracula's first appearance in England because of the Synod of Whitby, given the novel's preoccupation with timekeeping and calendar disputes. Elizabeth Gaskell set her novel "Sylvia's Lovers" partly in the town which she visited in 1859 and Lewis Carroll stayed at 5, East Terrace between July and September 1854: his first
Clontarf parish (Church of Ireland) was appointed Officer of Health for the parish jointly with James Colville. On 30 December 1847 Abraham, son of Abraham and Charlotte Matilda Stoker of The Crescent, Clontarf, was baptised by Rev. Edward, a visiting clergyman from the Diocese of Ossory. Bram Stoker, as he became known, was the creator of the Dracula stories and is commemorated today in the Bram Stoker Museum in Westwood Club near the Crescent. Bram's family later moved to Artane Lodge but his younger siblings were also baptised in Clontarf. The church, meanwhile, was becoming too small for its growing congregations, especially in the summer.