Yorkshire

Moors and dales, pastoral and industrial, great history. They call York ‘a living museum’. Inside its three-mile long city walls is a treasure trove of history dominated by York Minster with its fabulous stained glass and Chapter House. There is also the world-renowned York Castle Museum and Jorvik, the Viking City.

Yorkshire’s abbeys reflect its religious history. Byland and Rievaulx are worthy foils to Fountains Abbey, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Among Yorkshire’s great houses, Castle Howard, an 18^th century Baroque masterpiece, is stunning in scale. Compare it with Burton Agnes Hall, a stately, yet homely, Elizabethan mansion, and the Palladian Harewood House.

To the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Swaledale, Wharfedale and Wensleydale are the principals in the land of castles, rugged limestone scenery and soft, rolling hills. Running into the North Sea is the North York Moors National Park – bleakly beautiful moorland and lush, green valleys. Travel the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Whitby, home to Captain James Cook, sits at the top of a string of sweeping beaches, resorts and headlands, including Robin Hood’s Bay, Scarborough and the naturalists’ wonderland, Bempton Cliffs.

Yorkshire’s industrial past is marked by the National Coal Mining Museum, where you can visit a coal face, and Magna, a hi-tech showcase based in a former steel works. Its literary greatness is fronted at Haworth, home to the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.