Beer Gardens in Whitby: Where to Drink Outside

What to expect from outdoor drinking in Whitby

Whitby is a harbour town built into cliffs, so outdoor seating tends to be a yard, a terrace or a strip of pavement rather than a walled garden with a lawn. Sea breezes arrive fast and the weather can change between ordering and finishing a pint, so treat any outdoor plan as provisional and have an indoor fallback in mind. Summer weekends fill the obvious spots early, and the trade-off for the best views is usually a climb or a queue.

If your day is built around pubs rather than one garden, the wider best pubs in Whitby round-up covers the rooms and the beer across both sides of the harbour, while this page sticks to where you can sit outside.

Whitby Brewery Tap, East Cliff: the big outside area below the abbey

Whitby Brewery Tap is the strongest outdoor option in town. It stands in the shadow of the abbey ruins at East Cliff, a short walk from the top of the 199 steps, and its outside area has its own bar, with a shop at the entrance selling drinks to take away as well as bottles. Inside there is a large seating area with a stage for live music, part of the brewery itself and a pizza oven.

The brewery has been producing since 2013, and the cask beers are brewed on the premises — the traditional English bitter Whitby Waler and the Jet Black porter, named after the fossilised jet found along this coast, are the ones to look for. The taproom opens 11am to 9pm seven days a week, with pizzas served 1pm to 7pm or until they sell out, though staff shortages and holidays can affect food. Hours and food service do shift with the season, so confirm on the day before making it the centrepiece of a long afternoon.

There is no customer parking at the brewery, but the Whitby Abbey car park is a short walk away. Booking is not advertised for the taproom, so for a group it is safer to arrive early in the day and claim outdoor seats before the afternoon crowd walks down from the abbey.

The Little Angel, Flowergate: Grade II listed, with a garden over the town

The Little Angel on Flowergate is a Grade II listed pub with three connected rooms around a central bar — the one to aim for is the Captains Cabin — and its own Lady Luck Brewery on site. The rear beer garden is the draw here, with views over Whitby and, when the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is running, steam trains coming into town. Six cask beers were on the bar on a recent count, four of them brewed on the premises, alongside ciders and a wide keg selection.

Its position on Flowergate puts it on the west side, a short walk from the swing bridge and handy for combining with the Grape Lane micropubs rather than the abbey. The trade-off is that a garden with a view over the town sits on a slope, so expect steps and uneven ground rather than a flat lawn. If you want a full Sunday lunch rather than a pint with a view, a dedicated Sunday lunch Whitby guide is the better place to choose.

The Green Dragon Alehouse, Grape Lane: bottle shop and taproom

The Green Dragon Alehouse on Grape Lane, opened in 2016 by two brothers, splits neatly in two: a bottle shop on one side with a large selection of mainly local beers and ciders plus some from further afield, and a taproom on the other serving up to eight keg beers across styles and strengths. Grape Lane is a narrow old shopping street on the east side of the swing bridge, and the building it occupies dates back to the seventeenth century.

This is a standing-and-chatting kind of place rather than a garden destination, so treat it as the stop before or after somewhere with proper outdoor seating. It sits near Beer O'Clock on the east side, making a natural pairing with the pubs across the bridge.

Arch & Abbey, Skinner Street: the quirky room off Flowergate

Arch & Abbey opened in 2018 in a former dress shop on Skinner Street, just off Flowergate, and it is the kind of room people describe as quirky — a large clock on the outside wall above the front, plenty of local gins lined up by the bar, four cask beers and three keg lines with cans and bottles to back them up.

For outdoor drinking, treat this as a weather-dependent bonus rather than a destination garden: the appeal is the room and the beer range, so save it for a cool hour or a change of scene between the Flowergate pubs. It is a short walk from The Little Angel, which makes the two easy to pair on the same loop.

The Esk Vaults: an upstairs craft bistro for when it rains

The Esk Vaults is an upstairs bar on the west side that bills itself as a craft bistro, with four keg beers typically spanning sour, pale, stout and lager, plus cans and bottles. The food is the practical draw — pizza, nachos and toasties — which makes it the obvious fallback when an outdoor plan is rained off.

Because it is upstairs and food-led, it suits a group that wants to sit down and eat rather than perch outside with a pint. Check the food menu and kitchen times when you arrive rather than assuming a full evening service.

Beer O'Clock and The Quirky Den: small micropubs and bars

Beer O'Clock, which opened in December 2022 in a former greengrocer's, is a modern micropub with bay seating down one side and tables down the other against stone walls, four cask beers with Timothy Taylor's Landlord as the permanent line, four keg lines and ciders. It is a short walk from the Flowergate pubs, and its size means outdoor space is limited, so plan around the room rather than the pavement.

The Quirky Den on Grape Lane is a small bar in a building dating to around 1639, opened under its current name in 2018 and under new owners from July 2023; it serves four cask ales, keg beers and a deep rum and gin selection, including Theakston's Old Peculier from the wood. Its opening pattern has changed around refurbishment, so check before making a special trip rather than relying on an old post.

Both are best treated as one-pint stops inside a wider walk. If you want the history behind the town's older rooms, the guide to the oldest pub in Whitby covers the buildings worth seeking out on the same circuit.

Matching the spot to your occasion

For the best view with a beer, choose The Little Angel's rear garden or the walk up to Whitby Brewery Tap, accepting the climb and the breeze. For a group that wants space, food and its own bar outside, the brewery's East Cliff yard is the clear pick, with pizzas in the early afternoon and a shop for bottles to take home. For a couple of pints with local character, stay on the west side around Grape Lane and Flowergate, where the rooms are small but the walking is short.

When it rains, move indoors: The Esk Vaults for pizza and toasties, Arch & Abbey for the room, or Beer O'Clock for a proper micropub pint. And if the plan is a full meal rather than a pint in the open air, the pub food Whitby guide is the better starting point than any garden list.

Which Whitby outdoor spot should you pick?

If you only sit outside once, make it Whitby Brewery Tap for the space and the abbey backdrop, or The Little Angel if you want a view over the town with a pint from the brewery on site. Build the rest of the day around the west side pubs, where Grape Lane and Flowergate keep you within a short walk of a warm room when the sea breeze wins.