On the West Cliff above the harbour, an arch made from the jawbones of a bowhead whale frames the view across to the abbey on the opposite headland. It is a memorial to Whitby's once-significant whaling industry, which sent fleets to the Greenland Sea throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries.
The current arch is the third on the spot. The first jawbones were erected in 1853, replaced in 1963, and replaced again in 2003. The current pair are from a 2002 hunt and were donated by the Iñupiat community of Barrow (Utqiagvik), Alaska. A statue of Captain James Cook stands a few metres away looking out to sea.