Explore

Yorkshire, one good place at a time.

Everything here is chosen, written up and kept honest. No sponsored slots, no filler.

23 places

Priory ruins beside the river at Bolton Abbey

Heritage & landscape · Yorkshire Dales

Bolton Abbey

Priory ruins, stepping stones and riverside paths for every pace.

Balanced gritstone stacks on heather moorland

Landscape · Harrogate & Nidderdale

Brimham Rocks

Gritstone stacks balanced like something left behind on purpose.

Formal garden path with glasshouse in morning mist

Historic house · York

Castle Howard

Baroque theatre in the Howardian Hills, with grounds to match.

Heritage & landscape · Harrogate & Nidderdale

Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal

The grandest monastic ruin in the country, in a designed water garden.

Independent shops on a stone high street

Market town · Harrogate & Nidderdale

Knaresborough

A gorge town with a viaduct, a castle and rowing boats below.

Heather moorland and a winding lane above a stone village

Heritage railway · North York Moors

North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Steam across the moors from Pickering to the coast.

Arts & heritage · Leeds & West Yorkshire

Salts Mill

A Victorian mill turned gallery, bookshop and very good lunch.

Fish and chips with a pot of tea beside a harbour window

Eat & drink · Whitby & the Coast

The Magpie Café

Whitby's best-known plate of fish and chips, harbour side.

Timber-framed shopfronts leaning over a cobbled lane

Street · York

The Shambles

A medieval butchers' row that leans in over your head.

Whitby harbour with the abbey ruin above the cliff

Heritage · Whitby & the Coast

Whitby Abbey

A ruin on a headland doing exactly what a ruin on a headland should.

Arts & landscape · Wakefield & Calderdale

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Five hundred acres of parkland with world-class sculpture in it.

Bakery & tearoom · Whitby & the Coast

Botham's of Whitby

Fifth-generation bakers and a tearoom that has not chased fashion.

Heritage · helmsley-ryedale

Helmsley Castle

A castle above the River Rye whose surviving remains trace the site from medieval fortress to Tudor mansion and later ruin.

Family attraction · helmsley-ryedale

Helmsley Open Air Swimming Pool

A 25-metre heated outdoor swimming pool run as a charity in the North York Moors National Park.

Garden · helmsley-ryedale

Helmsley Walled Garden

A five-acre historic walled garden below the castle, with borders, glasshouses, orchard, café, plant centre and shop.

Self catering · grassington-upper-wharfedale

Long Ashes Park

A holiday park at Threshfield with lodges, glamping options and on-site leisure facilities.

Family attraction · helmsley-ryedale

National Centre for Birds of Prey

A specialist bird-of-prey centre at Duncombe Park with more than 40 aviaries, flying demonstrations and extensive outdoor space.

Heritage · helmsley-ryedale

Nunnington Hall

A National Trust manor house beside the River Rye with period rooms, exhibitions, an organic garden, tea room and second-hand bookshop.

Autumn borders and glasshouse in a Yorkshire garden

Garden · Harrogate & Nidderdale

RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Sixty-odd acres of Yorkshire planting, at its best in bad weather.

Family attraction · grassington-upper-wharfedale

Stump Cross Caverns

A visitor cave system on the B6265 between Grassington and Pateley Bridge, with self-guided underground exploration and a visitor centre.

Hotel · helmsley-ryedale

The Pheasant Hotel

A country hotel overlooking Harome’s village pond with individually furnished rooms, dining spaces and an indoor pool.

Shop · grassington-upper-wharfedale

Town End Farm Shop & Tearoom

A family-run farm shop and tearoom in Malhamdale selling local produce, meat, deli goods and food from the farm.

Food & attraction · Yorkshire Dales

Wensleydale Creamery

Cheese made in the dale it is named after, in Hawes.