Cutting his teeth: how Bram Stoker found his inner Dracula in Scotland

9 October 2022 · The Guardian

Joanna Moorhead

Bram Stoker Estate account

Estate summary

Joanna Moorhead explores Mike Shepherd’s research into Bram Stoker’s holidays at Cruden Bay and the Kilmarnock Arms. Hotel registers and local recollections frame his argument for the area’s importance to Dracula. The feature also introduces the Festival of Darkness; its more colourful accounts of inspiration remain attributed interpretations.

The Guardian feature is dated 9 October 2022. Its claims about local influences and Stoker’s behaviour are attributed to historian Mike Shepherd and reported recollections, rather than treated as independently proven origins for Dracula.

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Related illustration: The Kilmarnock Arms Hotel, Cruden Bay. Photograph by Martyn Gorman, 2008.Martyn Gorman / Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0.