Things to do in County Durham

Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale are among the most spectacular natural features of the Yorkshire Dales, a series of three broad natural limestone steps over which the River Ure descends through a beautiful wooded gorge in one of the most visited and most photographed locations in the Dales National Park. The falls are not a single dramatic plunge like High Force to the north, but rather a long sequence of wide cascades spread across the full width of the river, their horizontal extent and the surrounding woodland of ash and oak creating a scene of distinctive pastoral beauty that feels characteristic of the gentler, greener landscape of this part of the Dales. The Upper Falls, Middle Falls and Lower Falls each have their own character and are accessible from different points along the network of well-maintained paths that wind through the gorge on both sides of the river. The Upper Falls are perhaps the most impressive in terms of pure drama, the river racing across a broad limestone lip in full flood conditions with considerable force. The Middle Falls are the most visited, accessible from the car park and famous as the location where the staff fight scene in Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was filmed, a connection that brings devoted fans of the film alongside the walkers and Dales enthusiasts who form the majority of visitors. The geological setting of the falls reflects the Carboniferous limestone that underlies much of the Yorkshire Dales and gives the park its characteristic combination of grey rock, white water and green woodland. The horizontal bedding of the limestone, eroded at different rates depending on the hardness of successive layers, produces the stepped profile of the falls, and the solution features visible in the rock surfaces bear witness to the long dissolving action of the slightly acidic river water on the calcium carbonate rock. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Visitor Centre near the falls provides information about the geology, ecology and history of Wensleydale, and the nearby village of Aysgarth with its historic church and the restored Yore Mill above the Upper Falls add further points of interest to the site.

Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, in County Durham is one of the most ambitious and successful open-air museums in Britain, a vast interpretive site covering over three hundred acres of the Durham countryside in which reconstructed and relocated historic buildings create a series of time-specific environments that bring the history of the northeast of England to life through genuine artefacts, costumed staff and working recreations. The museum focuses principally on two periods: the early 1820s, representing the emergence of the coal and railway industries, and the Edwardian era of around 1913, and the quality of the interpretation and the authenticity of the settings make it one of the most compelling heritage experiences in the north of England. The Edwardian town is the museum's centrepiece, a complete recreation of a northeast market town of the early twentieth century with a working tramway carrying visitors between the street of shops, the pub, the dentist, the cooperative store, the photographer's studio and the newspaper office. Everything in the shops is genuine period stock, the staff are costumed and knowledgeable, and the effect of walking through an Edwardian street in which every detail is correct is genuinely transporting. The tramway itself uses restored historic trams and provides both transport and an attraction in its own right. The colliery village, the farm, the Georgian manor house and the reconstructed 1940s wartime facilities added in more recent phases of the museum's development extend the chronological and thematic range considerably. The 1820s section has been substantially expanded with new buildings and exhibits reflecting the period of early industrialisation and railway development that made the northeast one of the birthplaces of the modern world. The working Pockerley Waggonway, a reconstruction of an early colliery wagonway, operates with period locomotives. The scale of Beamish means that a full visit requires at least a full day, and the museum's programme of seasonal events and activities adds additional interest throughout the year.

Durham Cathedral is widely considered one of the supreme achievements of Romanesque architecture anywhere in the world, a massive Norman church built on a peninsula in the dramatic meander of the River Wear between 1093 and 1133 that stands as arguably the greatest cathedral building in England. The UNESCO World Heritage Site it forms with Durham Castle has been celebrated by visitors and writers across the centuries, and the poet John Betjeman's description of it as the greatest piece of architecture in the British Isles represents a widely shared response to a building of overwhelming quality and presence. The cathedral was built to house the remains of St Cuthbert, the most venerated saint of northern England, whose body had been carried around Northumbria for over a century by monks fleeing Viking raids before being settled at Durham in 995. The shrine of St Cuthbert, together with the head of St Oswald, King of Northumbria, and the remains of the Venerable Bede, who was transferred to Durham in 1022, gave the cathedral a collection of relics that made it one of the most important pilgrimage sites in medieval Britain. The cathedral's architectural significance lies above all in its pioneering use of the pointed ribbed vault, which appears here for the first time in a major building anywhere in the world and represents the technical breakthrough that made Gothic architecture possible. The nave vault of Durham Cathedral, constructed at the beginning of the twelfth century, solved the fundamental problem of how to roof a wide stone building permanently in stone, and the solution developed by the Durham masons was adopted and elaborated across all subsequent Gothic building in Europe over the following four centuries. The Galilee Chapel at the west end contains the tomb of Bede, and the Cathedral's Treasury holds the pectoral cross and portable altar found in Cuthbert's tomb, among the most important early medieval artefacts in Britain.

Hawes is the principal market town of upper Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, a small but lively town whose combination of the famous Wensleydale Creamery, the excellent Dales Countryside Museum, the weekly Tuesday market and the superb walking available on the surrounding fells and dale makes it the most complete and most welcoming destination in the upper dale. The town provides the essential services for the walking and cycling visitors who use it as a base for the excellent accessible landscapes of upper Wensleydale and the connecting valleys. The Wensleydale Creamery in the centre of the town produces the crumbly white cheese associated with this dale since the twelfth century when the Cistercian monks of Jervaulx Abbey first made it from ewes' milk. The creamery is open to visitors and provides one of the most popular cheese-related visitor experiences in England, combining the working dairy with a shop, café and visitor interpretation in a format that has become a national model for artisan food tourism. The Hardraw Force, England's highest unbroken waterfall above ground at approximately 30 metres, is accessible through the pub garden of the Green Dragon Inn at Hardraw a short distance from Hawes, a combination of the finest waterfall in the Dales with an obligatory pub visit that appeals greatly to the walking visitor community. The combination of Hardraw and Hawes provides an excellent half-day in the upper dale.

High Force on the River Tees in County Durham is one of the most powerful waterfalls in England, a thundering cascade that plunges approximately 21 metres into a dark plunge pool below, surrounded by ancient volcanic rock and dense riverbank woodland. Its setting within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, often described as England's last great wilderness, gives it a remote, elemental character that distinguishes it from more accessible waterfalls in more visited parts of the country. The geological story of High Force is written in the rock itself. The waterfall drops over a resistant outcrop of Whin Sill, the same dark volcanic dolerite that forms the Great Whin Sill crags along Hadrian's Wall to the north. This hard igneous rock was intruded into the existing sedimentary layers around 295 million years ago as molten magma, and its resistance to erosion explains why the River Tees drops so dramatically where the softer rock has been worn away but the dolerite remains. Below the fall, layers of limestone and sandstone frame the plunge pool in bands of contrasting colour and texture. After heavy rainfall the waterfall is genuinely spectacular, with the full width of the Tees channelled over the lip in an impressive torrent of brown moorland water and white spume. In drought conditions the flow drops considerably, but even at low water the geological drama of the site remains compelling. The spray from the falls can reach visitors on the viewing platforms, which should be considered both a warning and an inducement depending on the season. The surrounding woodland along the Tees gorge supports a rich variety of tree species including ash, oak, hazel and rowan, along with an understory of mosses, ferns and wildflowers that benefit from the constant moisture created by the falls. The riverside path from the car park at Bowlees Visitor Centre provides a pleasant walk of around a mile through this landscape, with views of the falls from multiple angles. The falls are located on land managed by the Raby Estate and an admission charge applies to visit the waterfall itself, payable at the car park. The nearby Bowlees Visitor Centre, run by Durham Wildlife Trust, provides free access to information about the broader North Pennines landscape and has a small waterfall of its own, Gibson's Cave, a short walk from the centre. Together, a visit to High Force and its surroundings makes for one of the most rewarding half-day excursions in the North Pennines.

Middleham in Wensleydale is a small market town in the Yorkshire Dales famous for its horse racing training tradition, the ruined Neville castle and the association with Richard III who spent much of his youth here as a ward of the Earl of Warwick. The combination of the castle history, the working racehorse training community visible on the moors each morning and the attractive market town character creates a destination of unusual variety in the lower Dales landscape. Middleham Castle, managed by English Heritage, was the principal residence of the Neville family and the place where the future Richard III grew up as a ward of the Kingmaker earl. The castle is one of the largest in Yorkshire and the surviving great keep, the gatehouse and various residential buildings provide excellent evidence of accommodation available to one of the most powerful noble families in medieval England. The racehorse training tradition at Middleham, established on the high gallops above the town since the early eighteenth century, makes the town one of the most important racing centres in northern England. The morning exercise of horses on the Middleham High Moor provides one of the most distinctive sights available in the Yorkshire Dales.

Few places capture the atmosphere of the surrounding landscape quite like Muker Swaledale. Visitors often find themselves spending far longer here than expected because the scenery invites slow exploration. The location works particularly well as part of a wider scenic journey through the region. Photographers often appreciate the changing light conditions, particularly during sunrise and sunset. The surrounding landscape provides a strong sense of place that helps visitors understand the character of the region. Wandering around the area reveals small details that are easily missed when simply passing through. The surrounding landscape changes beautifully with the seasons, giving the location a slightly different character throughout the year. Even during busier periods there are usually quieter corners where the scenery can be appreciated at a slower pace. The atmosphere can shift dramatically depending on the weather, with bright sunlight revealing colours and textures that are easy to miss on overcast days. Many visitors return repeatedly because each visit offers something slightly different. Local walking routes and nearby viewpoints make it a rewarding place to explore on foot. Whether visiting for a short stop or a longer walk, Muker Swaledale leaves a lasting impression.

Reeth is the principal village of upper Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales, a handsome settlement set around a large triangular green high above the River Swale whose combination of Georgian and earlier stone buildings, the views up and down the dale from the village green and its position at the meeting of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale make it the natural centre of the northern Yorkshire Dales and one of the finest Dales villages. The village provides the services and character of a genuine rural community that also accommodates the walkers, cyclists and visitors drawn to this exceptionally beautiful section of the national park. The Swaledale landscape above and below Reeth is among the finest traditional farming landscapes in Britain, the pattern of stone-walled hay meadows and pastures on the valley sides providing in summer one of the finest botanical spectacles in the Dales, the unimproved meadow flora of yellow rattle, wood cranesbill, melancholy thistle and numerous orchid species colouring the valley in ways that have all but disappeared from the lowland English countryside. The meadows of upper Swaledale are among the best preserved examples of traditional hay meadow management in Britain. The lead mining heritage of Swaledale is visible in the landscape above Reeth, where the heather moorland is pitted with the remains of mine shafts, smelt mills and the distinctive linear scars of the hushes, channels cut in the moorland to use water flow to expose ore-bearing rock. The Swaledale Museum in Reeth provides interpretation of the mining history and the wider cultural history of this remote but distinctive dale. The Coast to Coast walk passes through Reeth and the Pennine Journey route traverses the surrounding moorland, making it an excellent walking base.

Tan Hill Inn on Stonesdale Moor in North Yorkshire holds the remarkable distinction of being the highest public house in Great Britain at an elevation of 528 metres above sea level, a position that places it firmly in the category of genuinely extreme British pubs and ensures that a visit in any season other than midsummer carries a possibility of encountering weather conditions ranging from dramatic to spectacular. The inn sits at the summit of a broad, exposed moorland ridge where the Yorkshire Dales, the North Pennines and the Durham uplands all converge, and the views in every direction across this vast, thinly populated landscape are as extraordinary as the location. The building dates from the seventeenth century, though the precise history of its earlier incarnations is difficult to disentangle from the limited documentary record. It served throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a drovers' inn for the cattle and sheep farmers moving their animals across the high moors between markets, and later provided accommodation and refreshment for the lead miners and coal workers who extracted fuel from the small coal seams that underlie this part of the Pennines. The site's elevation and exposure made it a natural landmark and stopping point for travellers crossing the moor in any weather. The inn's reputation for being cut off by winter snow is both genuine and enthusiastically cultivated. Heavy snowfall can occasionally leave the building isolated for days, and stories of customers being stranded and the landlord continuing to serve excellent beer until conditions allowed departure have helped establish Tan Hill's particular mythology. The annual Tan Hill Inn Sheep Show, held each year in late May, is the highest agricultural show in Britain and celebrates the Swaledale sheep that have thrived on these moorland conditions for centuries. Today Tan Hill attracts visitors year-round who come as much for the experience of being somewhere genuinely remote and exposed as for the pub itself. The inn serves food and accommodation alongside its bar function, and the walking routes across Stonesdale Moor and along the Pennine Way National Trail, which passes directly by the door, make it a natural stopping point for long-distance walkers.

Wensleydale is the broadest and most pastoral of the Yorkshire Dales, a wide river valley of exceptional agricultural beauty running east from the high fells above Hawes to the Vale of York, its broad floor of traditional meadows and its stone-built villages creating the archetypal image of the Yorkshire Dales that has appeared on countless calendars, postcards and chocolate boxes. The dale takes its name from the village of Wensley rather than from the River Ure that flows through it, and while the dale lacks the dramatic limestone pavements and waterfalls of some of its neighbours, it compensates with a landscape of human-made beauty that reflects centuries of traditional farming practice. The meadow landscape of Wensleydale is of national ecological importance. The traditional hay meadows that have been farmed by the same methods for centuries, cut once annually after the flowers have seeded and fertilised only with farmyard manure, support plant communities of extraordinary diversity including yellow rattle, wood crane's-bill, great burnet and dozens of grass and wildflower species that have been lost from the intensively managed lowland meadows of the rest of England. The Pennine Dales Meadows Special Area of Conservation protects the finest surviving examples, and a walk through an unimproved Wensleydale meadow in June is one of the most quietly beautiful experiences the English countryside offers. The dale is equally famous for its cheese, a crumbly white cow's milk variety with a history stretching back to the Cistercian monks of Jervaulx Abbey who developed the recipe in the twelfth century. The Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes, which narrowly escaped closure in the 1990s and was saved by a management buyout, now welcomes visitors to see traditional cheese-making in action and sells its products direct from the creamery shop. Aysgarth Falls, where the River Ure descends in three broad natural steps through the dale, is the most spectacular natural feature in Wensleydale and one of the most visited sites in the Dales. The nearby castles of Bolton and Middleham add historical depth to a dale that rewards slow exploration.