Best Places to Visit in Yorkshire (A Complete Travel Guide)
Yorkshire is the largest county in England and arguably its most beautiful. A place of sweeping moorland, dramatic dales, ancient abbeys, fishing villages clinging to clifftops and market towns that feel unchanged in centuries. It's a landscape that makes painters reach for their brushes and poets reach for their pens.
Here are the best places to visit in Yorkshire — from the wild North York Moors to the gentler valleys of the Dales.
1. Whitby
Perched above a harbour on the North Yorkshire coast, Whitby is one of the most atmospheric towns in England. The ruined abbey on the clifftop, the 199 steps, the tightly packed fishing cottages in the old town, the smell of salt and fish and Whitby jet — and sunsets over the North Sea that stop you in your tracks. Dracula was set here, and you understand why.
2. Robin Hood's Bay
One of the most beautiful fishing villages in England, Robin Hood's Bay tumbles down a steep ravine to a tiny rocky cove. The houses are so tightly packed that in places you can lean out of an upstairs window and shake hands with a neighbour across the lane. At high tide the sea washes right up to the walls. It's unlike anywhere else.
3. Malham Cove
A great curved limestone amphitheatre rising 80 metres from the valley floor, Malham Cove is one of the most dramatic natural features in England. The limestone pavement on top is a landscape of extraordinary strangeness — a vast cracked plateau of pale rock where ferns and wildflowers grow in the gaps.
4. Aysgarth Falls
In the heart of Wensleydale, the River Ure tumbles over a series of wide limestone steps in one of Yorkshire's most beautiful natural spectacles. Surrounded by ancient woodland and wildflower meadows, Aysgarth Falls has been drawing visitors since the 18th century — Turner himself came here to paint.
5. Harrogate
One of England's most elegant spa towns, Harrogate has wide tree-lined streets, magnificent Victorian architecture, RHS Harlow Carr gardens and the most beautiful floral displays of any town in Britain. The Valley Gardens in spring are one of Yorkshire's great pleasures.
6. Bolton Abbey
The ruins of a 12th-century Augustinian priory rising from the banks of the River Wharfe, surrounded by estate woodlands and the wild moorland of the Yorkshire Dales. Bolton Abbey is one of the most romantic landscapes in the north of England — Turner painted it, Wordsworth walked it.
7. Grassington
The capital of Upper Wharfedale, Grassington is a postcard-perfect market town with a cobbled square, stone cottages and the fells pressing in from every direction. Used as the fictional Darrowby in All Creatures Great and Small — and every bit as charming as that suggests.
8. Staithes
Less famous than Whitby but even more dramatic, Staithes is a fishing village that squeezes itself into a narrow ravine on the Yorkshire coast. Tall, tightly-packed houses in deep reds and ochres, a harbour wall battered by North Sea waves and an atmosphere that feels untouched by time.
9. Rievaulx Abbey
The ruins of one of the greatest Cistercian abbeys in England sit in a hidden valley in the North York Moors — roofless but remarkably intact, with soaring Gothic arches still standing against the sky.
10. Knaresborough
One of Yorkshire's most photogenic market towns, Knaresborough sits above a dramatic limestone gorge with the River Nidd curling below. The view from the castle — colourful houses cascading down to the river, a Victorian viaduct crossing the gorge — is one of the most beautiful in the north of England.
Bring Yorkshire Home
From the cliffs of Whitby to the dales of Wharfedale — our watercolour print collection captures the wild beauty of Yorkshire and the British countryside. Each print is made to order on premium fine art paper with free UK shipping.