Places To Visit In North Yorkshire

Castle Howard

Castle Howard is one of Britain's finest stately homes, located in the beautiful Howardian Hills, fifteen miles northeast of the famous city of York.

Built in 1699, Castle Howard is, today, still the private home of the Howard family. As a major tourist attraction the house receives hundreds of thousands of visitors annually from all over the world, who come to enjoy a variety of delights.

• There is the magnificent house itself, built by the architect Sir John Vanbrugh, and distinguished by its famous dome.
• Indoors there are enormous collections of art treasures that include important paintings by Canaletto, Holbein, Gainsborough and Reynolds, a magnificent collection of antique sculpture, and the porcelain collections include a spectacular Crown Derby botanical dessert service.
• Outdoors there are temples, lead statues and a startling array of monuments.
• Ray Wood is filled with one of the finest collections of rhododendrons in the world.
• The lakes, fountains and waterways have all recently been restored to full working order.
• The Rose Gardens are planted with thousands of old and new roses of all types.
• Attractions for children include an adventure playground, and boat trips on the Great Lake.
• There are two gift shops and three cafeterias located inside the house, at the Stable Block, and at the Boathouse.
• Throughout the season special events include outdoor concerts and other exciting spectacles.

But Castle Howard is much more than a stately home; it is also a working estate of some 10,000 acres. Farming, forestry, fishing, shooting, a caravan park, and residential and commercial let properties are among the thriving businesses that help to support the estate, as well as a tree nursery and plant centre offering top-quality trees and plants. There are also facilities for corporate entertaining inside the house, and Castle Howard has been used as a film and television location on many occasions.
In addition to maintaining the house and grounds, and continually improving the visitors' facilities, there is a strategic programme of restoration work, which ranges from small items such as paintings or furniture indoors, to larger projects such as the fabric of the house itself, the lead statues in the grounds, the garden buildings and other monuments across the estate.

Thirsk

Thirsk had developed into an important coaching stop at the centre of a crossroads and was noted for its many coaching inns. Among the old inns in Thirsk still in existence are the eighteenth century Three Tuns and Golden Fleece.
In the famous James Herriot stories created by the writer James Wight, Thirsk is the fictional 'Darrowby', a central location in the tales featuring the activities of a Yorkshire vet. Thirsk is also famed as the birthplace of Thomas Lord (born 1755) who was the founder of Lords Cricket Club in London.
Apart from the racecourse, the best-known feature of Thirsk is the church of St Mary, a large church of cathedral proportions described by the architectural historian Sir Nicholas Pevsner as the most spectacular Perpendicular church in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The church was begun in 1430 on the site of a chantry founded by Robert Thirsk earlier that century. It was completed in the sixteenth century.

Helmsley

Nestling on the edge of the North York Moors in Ryedale, lies the unspoilt market town of Helmsley, complete with four former coaching inns and a dazzling half-timbered rectory. Helmsley hasn't always been such a peaceful backwater. At the height of its prosperity as a weaving centre in the seventeenth century, the loom operators were famous for their thirsts, their songs and their leather breeches" and historic accounts of the local fair suggest an event which was fraught with fist-fights and drunkenness.

Today visitors can expect an all-together more peaceful reception now that Helmsley is a favourite haunt of walkers rather than drinkers. Indeed many walkers gather at the market cross to begin England's longest long-distance footpath journey, The Cleveland Way, which continues for 108 miles in a broad horseshoe round the North York Moors national Park.

The Helmsley skyline is dominated by its castle ruins, which date back to around the year 1200. Like so many Royalist strongholds, it was blown up by the Parliamentarians in the Civil War to prevent it from being used again.

The town, with its beautiful riverside walks, traditional tea rooms and genteel country pubs, has certainly lost nothing of its timeless appeal which draws people from all over the world, but perhaps its most famous asset is Duncombe Park, a fine baroque mansion which has been, in turn, the Duncombe's family seat for nearly three centuries, a hospital and a girls' school until it was bought in 1985 by Lord Feversham, a cousin of the third and last Earl, who restored it to its former glory and opened it to the public in 1990.

Whitby

Whitby has long attracted holidaymakers who enjoy its fine beaches and strolling around its quaint streets, set around the busy harbour on both sides of the River Esk.
From the cobbled streets, 199 steps lead to the parish church of St. Mary whose graveyard inspired Bram Stoker to include it in his novel ‘Dracula’. Towering over both, are and the ruins of the historic Abbey of St. Hilda, which dominates the East Cliff.

On the West Cliff stands a bronzed statue of Captain Cook, which overlooks an arch of Whalebones, recalling the father & son Whaling Masters of the Scoresby Family.
From the tall cliffs above the town, spectacular views link the sounds, smells, taste and feel of the sea to the visual splendour of the Heritage coast, carved by nature but fashioned by man.

Close by are the delightful fishing hamlets of Robin Hood's Bay to the south Sandsend, Runswick Bay and Staithes to the north. Linking them together is a waymarked long distance footpath ‘the Cleveland Way’ which is a joy to walk along with its rich wildlife, geology and dramatically plunging coastline.

Robin Hood's Bay

Robin Hood's Bay with its narrow streets and quaint cottages is one of the most picturesque villages on the English coastline.

Situated between Scarborough and Whitby the old village is to be found nestling in a ravine at the edge of a wide sweeping bay, where a huddle of red pan tile roofed cottages can be seen "stepping down" towards the sea on the steep cut banks which form a maze of turnings and (to the eye of the visitor who cares to wander the cobbled streets) seeming dead ends.

The landscape of Robin Hood's Bay is spectacular. From the southern most headland Ravenscar, (the vantage point used by the Romans as a signal station), one follows the large sweep of the bay to take in the heather of Fylingdales moor, with the rich pastures of farms nestling below, along the cliff and beach line to the northern most point of Ness. Heading off the beach cliff paths, the old railway track and the moorland walks offer a different perspective on this fascinating landscape beloved of artists and photographers. Some enjoy the Bay as part of a long distance walk; the Cleveland Way, the Lyke Wake Walk and the Coast-to-Coast walks all take in Robin Hood's Bay, where there are plenty of places for the tired walker to rest, relax and take refreshments. However those who come to simply experience the peace and tranquility of this village, set in one of the most beautiful areas of the East Coast find they can easily imagine the smugglers of old, secretly moving their contraband about at night or local men escaping from the press gang through the hidden doorways and narrow openings twixt the old fisherman's cottages.